A^|JRNAL  OF  EDUCATIONAL  RESEARCH  MONOGRAPHS 

n  ^^  s  B.  B,  BuoKDrGHAM,  Editor 

0  ^  I  Mber  1  October,  1923 


rsychological  Tests  and  Guidance  of 
High -School  Pupils 

(REVISED  AND  ENLARGED  EDITION) 


WILLIAM  MARTIN  PROCTOR 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

BLOOMINQTON,  ILLINOIS 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


CALIFORKIV 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


JOURNAL  OF  EDUCATIONAL  RESEARCH  MONOGRAPHS 

B.  R.  BUCKINGHAM,  Editor 
Number  1  October,  1923 


The  Use  of  Psycholog-ical  Tests  in  the 
Educational  and  Vocational  Guid- 
ance of  High  School  Pupils 

(REVISED  AND  ENLARGED  EDITION) 


BY 

WILLIAM  MARTIN  PROCTOR 
ASSOCIATE    PROFESSOR    OF    EDUCATION 
LELAND  STANFORD  JUNIOR  UNIVERSITY 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

BLOOMINGTON,  ILLINOIS 


Copyright  1921  by 

Public  School  Publishing  Ck). 

BloomiDgton,  Illinois 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Editor's  Introduction 5 

I.     Introduction 11 

11.     Psychological  Tests  as  a  Means  of  Measuring  the  Probable 

School  Success  of  High-School  Pupils 15 

III.  Use  of   Psychological   Tests   in  the   Educational  Guidance 

of  High-School  Pupils 29 

IV.  Status  of  One  Hundred  Thirty-one  Cases,  Tested  with  Stan- 

ford Revision  of  Binet  Scale,  and  Followed  up  for  Period 

of  Six  Years 43 

V.     Use  of  Psychological  Tests  in  the  Vocational  Guidance  of 

High-School  Pupils  63 

VI.     Relation  of  General  Intelligence  to  the  Persistence  of  Edu- 
cational and  Vocational  Plans  of  High- School  Pupils 78 

VII.     Psychological  Tests  and  College  Entrance 91 

VIII.     Intelligence  Tests  as  a  Means  of  Admitting  Special  Students 

to  Colleges  and  Universities 105 

Appendix 115 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

When  Professor  Terman's  book  on  The  Intelligence  of 
School  Children  appeared,  it  became  evident  that  Leland  Stan- 
ford Junior  University  was  the  center  of  a  surprisingly  extensive 
investigation  of  human  mentality.  It  was  clear  that  records  were 
being  made,  not  once,  but  repeatedly,  with  reference  to  the  same 
children  and  that  many  of  these  children  were  being  kept  under 
observation  throughout  their  school  careers  and  even  beyond.  In 
other  words,  the  common  curse  of  our  educational  inquiries,  in 
virtue  of  which  nothing  is  studied  hard  enough  and  long  enough 
to  reach  fundamental  results,  seemed  to  have  been  lifted  from 
the  efforts  of  the  Stanford  group  of  men  and  women. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  Stanford  group  is  Dr.  William  M. 
Proctor,  the  author  of  this  book.  He  has  given  particular  atten- 
tion to  high-school  pupils  and  to  underclassmen  in  college  and  it 
is  to  these  groups  that  he  has  applied  his  tests. 

These  tests  are  for  the  most  part  such  as  may  be  given  to 
large  numbers  of  persons  simultaneously.  Instruments  of  this 
kind  have  been  appropriately  called  group  tests,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  individual  or  interview  tests  in  the  use  of  which  an 
examiner  handles  only  one  person  at  a  time.  The  history  of  the 
development  of  these  group  tests  to  their  present  status  has  been 
sketched  in  a  number  of  places.  It  is  generally  and  correctly 
understood  that  the  prototype  of  all  the  present  group  intelli- 
gence tests  is  the  collection  of  examinations  loosely  termed  the 
Army  Tests. 

From  the  Army  Tests,  either  in  direct  descent  or  by  collat- 
eral branches,  has  sprung  a  large  progeny  in  the  form  of  group 
intelligence  scales  or  tests.  The  use  of  these  tests  has  already  be- 
come enormous.  To  a  certain  extent  the  persons  who  have  de- 
vised them  have  become  victims  of  this  popularity.  When  the 
school  people  will  buy  and  use  these  tests  by  the  millions,  there 
is  a  temptation  for  authors  to  rush  them  into  print  without  suffi- 
cient preliminary  analysis  and  without  extensive  trial  in  prac- 
tical situations. 

6 


6  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

Of  course,  this  is  only  a  temporary  condition.  Out  of  the 
competition  among  different  tests  and  the  trials  of  two  or  more 
of  them  on  the  same  individuals  will  come  a  critical  literature 
which  will  surely  bring  untrustworthy  instruments  into  disrepute. 
This  sort  of  literature  is  only  just  now  coming  through.  The 
development  of  group  intelligence  tests  has  been  so  rapid  that 
books  on  their  use  have  not  had  time  to  appear.  Magazine  arti- 
cles involving  the  use  of  one  or  two  of  them  have  been  published. 
Dr.  Holley's  monograph  on  the  use  of  mental  tests  appeared  dur- 
ing the  past  autumn.  The  present  book  is  another  of  much  the 
same  sort.  It  deals  with  the  Binet  Scale,  the  Army  Examina- 
tions a  and  b,  and  the  Army  Alpha  Test. 

But  Dr.  Proctor's  book,  although  incidentally  concerned  with 
the  validity  of  the  different  scales,  is  primarily  devoted  to  the 
practical  uses  to  which  the  results  of  intelligence  testing  may  be 
put.  For  example,  upon  testing  the  same  pupils  after  an  interval 
of  two  and  a  half  years.  Dr.  Proctor  is  especially  interested  in 
the  fact  that  "the  person  who  made  the  original  tests  .  .  .  would 
have  been  in  a  position  to  give  very  helpful  advice  to  all  of  the 
pupils  tested  by  him ;  also  that  his  predictions  as  to  the  possible 
educational  future  of  each  of  these  pupils  would  have  deserved 
serious  consideration  by  parents  and  teachers."  Again,  when  it 
becomes  possible  to  compare  the  success  in  high  school  of  two 
groups  of  pupils  of  which  one  has  received  guidance  on  the  basis 
in  part  of  intelligence  testing  while  the  other  has  received  no 
such  guidance,  Dr.  Proctor  is  especially  interested  in  this  prac- 
tical demonstration.  About  a  third  of  the  unguided  pupils,  but 
only  one-fifth  of  the  guided  pupils,  failed  in  one  subject.  None 
of  the  pupils  who  had  received  the  benefit  of  guidance  failed  in 
two  or  more  subjects,  while  rather  more  than  one  in  ten  of  the 
unguided  pupils  failed  to  that  extent. 

In  other  directions  his  interest  in  the  practical  use  of  intelli- 
gence tests  leads  him  into  the  field  of  vocational  guidance.  Here 
he  makes  good  use  of  the  work  of  the  army  psychologists  by 
which  the  intelligence  of  recruits  belonging  to  different  occupa- 
tions was  revealed.    These  he  relates  to  the  occupational  prefer- 


EDITOR'S  INTEODUCTION  7 

ences  which  he  obtained  from  over  nine  hundred  high-school 
pupils.  The  lowest  intelligence  score  made  by  the  middle  50  per- 
cent of  professional  workers  among  the  army  recruits  was  98. 
On  the  other  hand,  50  of  the  high-school  pupils  who  expressed 
their  intention  of  becoming  professional  workers  scored  less  than 
90.  Again,  he  points  out  the  fact  that  over  60  percent  of  the 
high-school  pupils  aspired  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  professional 
class  while,  according  to  the  United  States  census,  less  than  5 
percent  of  the  gainful  workers  of  the  country  belong  to  that  class. 
Dr.  Proctor,  therefore,  although  not  neglecting  the  theoretical 
and  scientific  aspects  of  his  subject,  gives  particular  attention  to 
the  practical  bearings  of  it.  Indeed,  we  should  say  that  his  mono- 
graph is  a  good  example  of  a  method  of  treatment,  which,  while 
it  is  competent  from  the  point  of  view  of  research  workers,  is  also 
of  special  interest  to  public  school  workers. 

With  respect  to  vocational  guidance  Dr.  Proctor's  material 
supports  his  view  that  those  who  seek  a  ready  means  of  deter- 
mining whether  pupils  should  be  telephone  operators  or  pho- 
tographers, bakers  or  blacksmiths,  farm  workers  or  barbers,  are 
likely  to  be  disappointed.  Nothing  in  our  general  intelligence 
tests  will  enable  us  to  be  specific  to  this  degree.  If,  however, 
occupations  are  divided  into  five  or  six  general  classes,  the  data 
at  hand  regarding  the  range  of  intelligence  among  people  belong- 
ing to  these  classes  are  such  as  to  permit  us  to  say  something 
definite  concerning  the  class  of  work  in  which  a  given  pupil  may, 
so  far  as  intelligence  is  concerned,  be  successful.  Perhaps  even 
here  we  can  say  with  greater  certainty  what  the  class  of  occupa- 
tions is  in  which  the  pupil  will  not  be  successful.  For  example, 
if  a  pupil's  intelligence  quotient  is  90,  we  can  be  sure  that  his 
intelligence  is  not  sufficient  for  professional  work  but  that  he  may 
(if  other  conditions  are  favorable)  successfully  pursue  some  oc- 
cupation belonging  to  the  class  of  skilled  labor.  Whether  that 
occupation  shall  be  that  of  a  bricklayer  or  a  painter,  a  plumber  or 
a  carpenter,  cannot  be  determined  on  the  basis  of  intelligence. 
Such  a  determination  will  depend  upon  individual  aptitude,  pref- 


8  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

erences,  and  opportunities.  In  other  words,  we  may  with  some 
safety  advise  pupils  as  to  classes  of  occupations,  but  we  cannot 
assume— at  least  on  the  basis  of  general  intelligence— to  advise 
them  with  respect  to  particular  occupations  within  the  occupa- 
tional classes. 

Those,  therefore,  who  are  looking  to  the  intelligence  test  to 
determine  whether  a  boy  should  be  a  bookkeeper  or  a  telegrapher 
may  as  well  know  at  the  outset  that  these  tests  offer  no  basis  for 
such  determinations.  This  comes  about  from  the  very  simple  fact 
that  the  same  degree  of  general  intelligence  is  required  and  is 
now  being  exhibited  by  both  bookkeepers  and  telegraphers.  In 
other  words,  the  difference  between  the  qualifications  for  work- 
ers of  these  two  sorts  is  not  intellectual  in  the  general  sense. 
Perhaps  we  shall  subsequently  develop  trade  and  occupational 
tests  which  will  differentiate  more  sharply  than  is  now  possible 
between  the  aptitudes  pertaining  to  occupations  in  the  same  class. 
Indeed,  we  can  already  mark  out  in  a  general  way  the  lines  along 
which  such  investigation  will  proceed.  There  will  be,  in  the  first 
place — to  stick  to  our  bookkeeper  and  telegrapher — an  analysis 
of  the  bookkeeper's  job  and  the  telegrapher's  job  for  the  pur- 
pose of  finding  out  what  these  workers  have  to  do.  From  these 
data  some  inferences  may  be  made  as  to  the  specific  abilities 
required  in  learning  and  performing  the  operations  incident  to 
the  occupation.  Having  determined  these  abilities,  or  the  most 
important  of  them,  tests  may  perhaps  be  devised  for  measuring 
such  abilities.  Many  trials  of  these  tests  and  a  checking  of  the 
results  obtained  from  them  against  the  ultimate  success  of  per- 
sons who  have  become  bookkeepers  and  telegraphers  will  be  re- 
quired in  order  to  refine  the  tests  to  the  point  where  they  will  be 
valid  instruments.  Meanwhile,  one  ought  to  point  out  that  trade 
tests  are  quite  different  from  guidance  tests.  For  example,  we 
have  certain  trade  tests  which  have  been  developed  in  the  army. 
We  also  have  tests  for  clerks  and  stenographers.  But  all  these 
tests  are  given  to  determine  the  ability  of  persons  already  belong- 
ing to  the  occupation  or  claiming  to  belong  to  it.    A  test  to  deter- 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION  9 

mine  whether  a  person,  prior  to  studying  about  an  occupation  or 
entering  upon  it,  has  the  ability  to  pursue  it  successfully  is  quite 
another  matter. 

Dr.  Proctor's  chapter  on  the  application  of  the  Army  Tests  to 
freshmen  upon  entrance  to  college  is  especially  interesting.  It  is 
worth  noting  how  the  different  educational  levels  correspond 
to  different  intelligence  levels.  Dr.  Proctor  found,  for  example, 
that,  expressed  in  terms  of  the  intelligence  quotient,  the  typical 
first-year  high-school  pupil  has  a  mentality  of  105.  Three  or 
four  years  later,  when  elimination  throughout  the  high  school  has 
had  its  effect,  the  typical  intelligence  of  high-school  graduates 
has  gone  up  6  points — namely  to  111.  If  the  reader  will  recall 
Professor  Terman's  classification  of  intelligence  quotients,  he  will 
observe  that  this  means  that  more  than  half  of  the  high-school 
graduates  belong  in  the  classification  called  "superior"  or  in  a 
higher  classification.  Between  graduation  from  high  school  and 
entering  college  another  sharp  elimination  apparently  takes  place 
in  virtue  of  which  the  mentality  of  typical  students  now  moves 
up  4  points  so  that  the  median  intelligence  quotient  for  students 
entering  college  is  115.  As  Dr.  Proctor  points  out,  if  the  same 
process  of  selection  takes  place  in  college  as  in  high  school,  "we 
should  expect  the  median  intelligence  quotient  of  college  gradu- 
ates to  be  120  or  over."  This  means  that  students  of  no  more 
than  average  intelligence  will  be  likely  to  be  eliminated  from  col- 
lege before  the  senior  year. 

In  conclusion,  we  should  like  to  point  out  that  Dr.  Proctor 
makes  no  inordinate  claims  for  the  intelligence  test.  Some  of 
the  results — particularly  the  correspondences  between  intelligence 
scores  and  teachers'  estimates  and  between  intelligence  scores  and 
ofiicial  ratings — would  be  higher  if  better  tests  had  been  at  his 
disposal.  The  Army  Alpha  Test  was  not  intended  for  high- 
school  or  college  students.  On  this  ground,  and  also  because  it 
was  a  pioneer  and  is  capable  of  improvement,  it  is  to  be  expected 
that  future  workers  will  secure  even  more  significant  correspond- 
ences than  Dr.  Proctor  found.    But  whether  this  is  true  or  not, 


10  FSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

the  Spirit  of  the  author  would  no  doubt  remain  the  same — the 
spirit  of  scientific  conservatism  which  refuses  (to  use  his  own 
words)  "to  place  undue  confidence  in  the  results  of  a  single 
psychological  examination,  however  thoroughly  it  may  have 
been  standardized."  g  j^  Buckingham 

January  22y  1921 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

The  secondary-school  population  of  the  United  States  has, 
since  1890,  increased  three  times  as  fast  as  the  general  population. 
In  the  year  1915  there  were  14.4  pupils  of  secondary  grade  for 
every  1,000  persons  of  the  general  population,  whereas  in  1890 
there  were  only  five.  According  to  recent  estimates  there  are  in 
the  United  States  14,000  high  schools  caring  for  1,500,000  pupils 
requiring  the  services  of  80,000  teachers,  and  calling  for  the  ex- 
penditure of  $75,000,000  per  year  for  salaries  and  maintenance. 

The  problem  of  administering  the  physical  side  of  this  vast 
educational  enterprise  has  occupied  the  attention  of  school 
authorities  to  such  an  extent  that  small  consideration  has  been 
given  to  the  need  for  internal  betterment.  The  average  Ameri- 
can community  is  willing  to  tax  itself  for  material  equipment. 
An  imposing  high-school  building  becomes  a  matter  of  civic  pride. 
It  is  a  good  talking  point  in  chamber  of  commerce  literature,  and 
can  be  shown  to  visitors  as  an  index  of  the  progressive  nature  of 
the  community. 

Many  of  our  city  high  schools  are  housed  in  buildings  supe- 
rior to  those  occupied  by  the  best  colleges  and  universities  a  gen- 
eration ago.  Buildings  costing  from  $500,000  to  $1,000,000  are 
not  uncommon;  and  it  is  perfectly  safe  to  say  that  no  other 
nation  has  begun  to  spend  as  much  upon  its  secondary-school 
buildings  as  has  our  own. 

When,  however,  it  comes  to  securing  more  money  for  teach- 
ers' salaries,  for  enriching  the  curriculum,  or  for  other  matters  of 
internal  improvement,  the  task  is  much  more  difficult.  The  re- 
sults obtained  by  spending  money  to  make  a  better  adjustment 
between  the  child  and  the  curriculum,  or  between  the  child  and 
his  future  place  in  the  social  order,  are  quite  intangible.  It  is 
very  difficult  to  prove  to  the  tax-paying  public  that  money  so 
spent  will  pay  ascertainable  dividends. 

11 


12    *  FSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

Since  the  public  is  more  willing  to  spend  money  on  buildings 
that  can  be  seen  than  on  invisible  internal  betterments,  reforms 
in  our  secondary  schools  have  come  very  slowly.  Natural  con- 
servatism as  well  as  considerations  of  economy  have  combined 
to  sustain  the  traditional  curriculum  in  seventy-five  out  of  every 
hundred  high  schools. 

So  long  as  preparation  for  college  was  the  chief  end  and  aim 
of  secondary  education,  the  narrow,  college-preparatory  course 
of  study  was  satisfactory.  But  since  the  high-school  population 
now  comes  from  every  class  of  home,  and  since  only  10  percent 
of  those  who  enter  high  school  ever  reach  college,  the  demand  has 
come  to  be  more  and  more  insistent  that  secondary  education 
shall  prepare  the  youth  of  the  land  for  citizenship  and  vocations. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  proposed  reorganization  of  secondary 
education  large  space  is  being  given  to  the  problem  of  educational 
and  vocational  guidance.  The  classical,  college-preparatory  high 
school  of  former  days  had  no  need  of  educational  guidance. 
There  was  only  one  course  of  study.  It  was  a  case  of  take  it 
or  leave  it.  Neither  was  there  great  need  for  vocational  guid- 
ance. Those  who  could  master  the  prescribed  course  of  study 
were  headed  for  the  professions.  Those  who  were  unable  to 
complete  the  course  taught  school  or  went  back  to  the  farm.  The 
boy  or  girl  in  perplexity  as  to  a  life  career  could  find  wise  and 
sympathetic  counselors  in  the  village  minister,  doctor,  or  lawyer. 

The  boy  or  girl  of  the  present  day  faces  a  much  more  complex 
situation.  The  fields  of  vocational  opportunity  have  been  greatly 
multiplied.  Where  formerly  there  were  six  or  seven  possible 
lines  of  life  work  open  to  the  educated  man  or  woman,  there  are 
now  literally  hundreds.  Some  agency  must  take  over  the  task 
of  collecting,  organizing,  and  imparting  accurate  information 
regarding  possible  vocational  opportunities  to  the  boys  and  girls 
in  our  high  schools. 

The  necessary  information  is  no  longer  easily  accessible  to  the 
inquiring  boy  or  girl.  The  "No  Admittance  Except  on  Business" 
sign  bars  them  from  shop  and  office  alike.  They  have  become 
more  and  more  dependent  upon  imparted,  as  against  first-hand, 


INTEODUCTION  13 

information  concerning  the  qualifications  necessary  to  success  in 
the  different  fields  of  endeavor.  The  minister  has  been  prac- 
tically eliminated  as  a  factor  in  vocational  guidance,  because  the 
church  reaches  such  a  small  fraction  of  the  high-school  popula- 
tion. A  majority  of  parents  have  neither  the  disposition  nor  the 
means  to  acquire  adequate  information  regarding  vocations  to 
make  them  competent  counselors.  This  means  that  the  home  is  a 
much  less  important  factor  than  it  used  to  be  in  the  vocational 
guidance  of  youth. 

The  high  school,  therefore,  becomes  the  residuary  legatee  of 
the  church  and  the  home  in  the  field  of  educational  and  vocational 
guidance.  Whether  the  high  school  meets  its  opportunity  for 
service  in  this  new  direction  or  fails  entirely  to  function  will  de- 
pend upon  the  methods  of  educational  and  vocational  guidance 
adopted. 

The  vital  nature  of  guidance  in  education  is  well  stated  by 
Truman  Lee  Kelley:^ 

The  modern  idea  of  education  is  crystallizing  into  an  effort  to  guide 
rather  than  to  instruct — to  answer  a  need  rather  than  to  cater  to  a 
curriculum.  The  growing  recognition  of  the  need  of  vocational  and 
educational  guidance  is  resulting  in  the  establishment  of  bureaus  en- 
deavoring to  give  the  former,  and  in  the  training  of  psychologists  to 
solve  the  problems  of  the  latter. 

Also  by  J.  M.  Brewer  :^ 

The  development  of  men  and  women  is  the  purpose  of  the  school, 
and  the  selection  of  and  preparation  for  occupations  is  one  of  the 
important  features  of  this  development.  The  school  must  therefore  be 
organized  with  the  vocational  guidance  of  the  child  as  one  of  the  aims 
in  mind. 

This  monograph  embodies  the  results  of  a  recent  study  by  the 
writer  involving  the  use  of  psychological  tests  in  the  educational 
and  vocational  guidance  of  high-school  pupils.  The  data  gath- 
ered and  the  conclusions  reached  are  presented  in  the  hope  that 
those  interested  in  the  advisement  problem  in  the  high  school  may 
find  herein  helpful  suggestions  or  be  stimulated  to  make  con- 
structive criticisms  in  the  light  of  their  own  experience. 


^Kelley,  Truman  Lee.  Educational  guidance.  (Teachers  College,  Colum- 
bia University  Contributions  to  Education,  No.  71.)  New  York:  Teachers  Col- 
lege, Columbia  University,  1914,  p.  1. 

'  Brewer,  J.  M.  The  voaational-guidance  movement.  New  York :  Macmil- 
lan  Company,  1918,  p.  58. 


14  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 

The  study  was  begun  in  the  school  year  1916-1917,  All  the 
pupils  of  the  September  and  February  entering  classes  of  the  Palo 
Alto  Union  High  School  were  given  the  Stanford  Revision  of 
the  Binet  Intelligence  Scale.  In  1917-1918  group  tests,  Army 
Examinations  a  and  b,  and  Army  Alpha  Test,  Form  5,  were  given 
to  more  than  1,600  high-school  pupils,  representing  nine  differ- 
ent institutions. 

The  high-school  progress  of  these  pupils  has  been  noted ;  in- 
formation as  to  vocational  ambition,  educational  plans,  etc.,  has 
been  secured ;  teachers  have  been  asked  to  give  estimates  of  abil- 
ity;  and  the  school  marks  of  those  remaining  in  school  have  been 
obtained.  The  records  made  by  93  pupils  who  were  graduated 
from  high  school  subsequent  to  being  given  the  psychological 
tests,  and  who  entered  Stanford  University,  have  also  been  com- 
piled. Chapter  IV  represents  a  sixth  year  follow-up  of  132 
Bineted  cases,  and  sets  forth  the  educational  history  of  each  case. 
Chapter  VI  represents  a  fourth  year  follow-up  of  over  seven  hun- 
dred cases  to  whom  group  intelligence  tests  were  given.  It  throws 
light  on  the  persistence  of  educational  and  vocational  plans  and 
their  relation  to  intelligence. 

The  following  chapters  will  indicate  what  the  writer  found 
to  be  the  value  of  the  tests  as  a  means  of  predicting  probable 
high-school,  vocational,  or  university  success.  The  word  "prob- 
able" is  used  advisedly  because  it  should  be  stated  at  the  outset 
that  the  writer  is  not  disposed  to  place  undue  confidence  in  the 
result  of  a  single  psychological  examination,  however  thoroughly 
it  may  have  been  standardized. 

The  results  obtained  are  at  least  suggestive  of  the  methods 
of  procedure,  in  the  use  of  psychological  tests  by  the  high-school 
principal  or  teacher,  that  will  throw  the  most  light  upon  the  prob- 
lem of  educational  and  vocational  guidance  in  the  high  school. 


CHAPTER  II 

PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AS  A  MEANS  OF  MEASUR- 
ING THE  PROBABLE  SCHOOL  SUCCESS  OF 
HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 

The  validity  of  the  Stanford-Binet  Scale,  when  applied  to 
high-school  pupils,  was  discussed  by  the  writer  in  the  issues  of 
School  and  Society  appearing  October  19  and  26,  1918.^  In  those 
articles  it  was  shown  that  very  significant  correlations  had  been 
obtained  between  intelligence  quotients,-  (I.Q.'s),  resulting  from 
the  individual  tests  of  107  high-school  pupils  and  the  school 
marks  earned  by  the  same  pupils  during  the  school  year  1916- 
1917;  also  between  I.Q.'s  and  teachers'  estimates  of  intelligence 
made  during  the  same  year. 

Two  years  and  a  half  later  there  were  66  of  the  original  107 
high-school  pupils  remaining.  Teachers  who  had  known  all  of 
these  pupils  during  their  stay  in  the  high  school  were  asked  to 
give  estimates  of  their  intelligence  upon  the  same  rating  sheet 
as  that  which  was  used  in  1916-1917.  All  school  marks  earned 
during  the  two  and  one-half  years  were  averaged.  Correlations 
were  then  found  (a)  between  the  I.Q.'s  obtained  in  1916-1917 
and  the  teachers'  estimates  made  in  1919;  (b)  between  the  aver- 
age of  all  school  marks  earned  up  to  April  1,  1919,  and  I.Q.'s  ob- 
tained in  1916-1917;  and  (c)  between  the  average  school  marks 
and  the  teachers'  estimates  made  in  1919,  Table  I  shows  the 
close  agreement  between  the  correlations  obtained  in  1916-1917 
and  those  found  in  1919. 

Table  I  shows  that  the  correlations  obtained  in  1918-1919, 
when  the  same  comparisons  were  made  as  in  1916-1917,  were 


*  Proctor,  W.  M.  "The  use  of  intelligence  tests  in  the  educational  guid- 
ance of  high-school  pupils/'  School  and  Society,  8:473-78,  502-9,  October,  1918. 

'  The  intelligence  quotient  is  obtained  by  dividing  the  mental  age  by  the 
chronological  age.  Thus  a  twelve-year-old  chronologically  who  tested  eight 
years  old  mentally  would  have  an  I.Q.  of  0.66,  expressed  for  convenience ' '  66. ' ' 
The  I.Q.  is  an  index  of  relative  brightness.  For  further  discussion  of  intelli- 
gence quotient  see:  Terman,  L.  M.  The  intelligence  of  school  children.  New 
York:    Houghton  MifSin  Co.,  1919,  p,  7. 

15 


16 


FSTCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


TABLE  I.    COMPARISON  OF  CORRELATIONS  OBTAINED 
IN  1916-1917  WITH  THOSE  OBTAINED  IN  1918-1919' 


Year 

Correlation 

between  I.  Q. 

and  Teacher 

Estimates 

Correlation 

between  I.  Q. 

and  School 

Marks 

Correlation 

between  School 

Marks  and 

Teacher 

Estimates 

Total 

Number 

of 

Cases 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

1916-17..... 
1918-19 

0.586±0.043 
0.583  ±0.055 

0.545±0.046 
0.487  ±0.063 

0.702  ±0.033 
0.667  ±0.046 

107 
66 

»  Pearson's  formula*  (shorter  method)  was  used  in  making  all  correlauons. 

practically  as  high  as  those  obtained  in  the  first  instance.  The 
results  of  two  and  one-half  years  of  follow-up  work  seem  to  in- 
dicate that  the  person  who  made  the  original  tests  with  the 
Stanford-Binet  Scale  in  1916-1917  would  have  been  in  a  posi- 
tion to  give  very  helpful  advice  to  all  of  the  pupils  tested  by  him ; 
also  that  his  predictions  as  to  the  possible  educational  future  of 
each  of  these  pupils  would  have  deserved  serious  consideration 
by  parents  and  teachers. 

As  a  means  of  discovering  individual  differences  between 
school  children  in  order  that  they  may  be  grouped  in  classes  ac- 
cording to  ability,  the  individual  psychological  test  has  been 
shown  to  be  a  helpful  tool.  From  the  standpoint  of  school  admin- 
istration, however,  the  individual  test  presents  serious  difficulties. 
The  time  required  to  give  an  individual  test  to  a  high-school 
pupil  varies  from  40  minutes  to  120  minutes.  The  total  number 
of  pupils  that  can  be  examined  by  a  single  examiner  in  a  day  will 
seldom  exceed  ten.  The  use  of  the  Stanford-Binet  abbreviated 
scale  enables  an  examiner  to  test  from  15  to  25  pupils  in  a  day. 
Even  so,  it  is  impossible  to  use  the  individual  method  when  a 
rapid  survey  of  an  entire  school  population  is  to  be  undertaken. 

Group  mental  examinations  afford  the  only  means  of  meeting 
the  demand  for  a  speedy  and  reliable  method  of  measuring  the 


•Bugg,   H.  O.     statistical  methods  applied  to  education. 
Houghton  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1917,  p.  274. 


New  York: 


TESTS  AND  SCHOOL  SUCCESS  17 

mental  abilities  of  large  groups  of  people.  Under  the  supervision 
of  Dr.  L.  M.  Terman  the  writer  directed  the  giving  of  Examina- 
tion a  (Form  A)  and  Examination  Alpha  (Form  5)  of  the  Army 
Scale  to  1,349  high-school  pupils,  representing  eight  California 
high  schools,  during  the  school  year  1917-1918. 

Examination  a  consists  of  ten  tests:  (1)  Oral  Directions, 
(2)  Memory  for  Digits,  (3)  Disarranged  Sentences,  (4)  Arith- 
metical Reasoning,  (5)  Information,  (6)  Synonym- Antonym, 
(7)  Common  Sense,  (8)  Number  Series  Completion,  (9)  Analo- 
gies, (10)  Number  Comparison.  The  total  possible  raw  score 
is  237.  This  test  was  given  to  portions  of  the  first-year  high- 
school  classes  in  the  Oakland  Technical,  Oakland  Central  and 
Fremont  (Oakland)  high  schools  and  to  all  of  the  pupils  present 
on  the  day  of  the  examination  at  the  Palo  Alto  Union  High 
School.    The  total  number  of  pupils  was  715. 

Group  Examination  Alpha  consists  of  eight  tests :  ( 1 )  Oral 
Directions,  (2)  Arithmetical  Reasoning,  (3)  Practical  Judgment, 
(4)  Synonym-Antonym,  (5)  Disarranged  Sentences,  (6)  Num- 
ber Series  Completion,  (7)  Analogies,  (8)  Information.  This 
test  was  given  to  all  pupils  present  on  the  day  of  examination  in 
the  San  Mateo,  Redwood  City,  Mountain  View,  and  Santa  Clara 
union  high  schools.     The  total  number  of  these  pupils  was  624. 

These  group  mental  examinations  were  applied  to  all  of  the 
pupils  in  each  of  the  high  schools  enumerated  above  at  exactly 
the  same  time.  A  sufficient  number  of  examiners,  trained  by 
Dr.  Terman,  was  taken  to  each  high  school,  to  cover  the  entire 
high  school  in  one  forty-five  minute  period.  The  size  of  the 
groups  ranged  from  40  to  150.  It  took  the  writer  and  his  as- 
sistant a  total  of  134  hours  to  test  107  high-school  pupils  by  the 
individual  method.  Six  trained  examiners  were  able  to  give  Ex- 
amination a  to  350  Palo  Alto  high-school  pupils  in  45  minutes. 
The  test  blanks  were  scored  by  university  students.  Their  work 
was  carefully  checked  and  the  results  tabulated  by  the  writer. 


18  FSTCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

Group  Test  Results  Compared  with  Individuai, 
Test  Resuets 

One  hundred  and  sixteen  of  the  high-school  pupils  tested  with 
Examination  a  had  previously  been  given  the  Stanford-Binet 
Scale.  Table  II  makes  comparison  of  the  two  kinds  of  mental 
examination.  Although  no  Binet  I.Q.'s  are  found  in  the  group 
140-149,  six  Army  Scale  I.Q.'s  are  between  140  and  149.  This 
is  because  a  higher  mental  age  is  attainable  on  the  Army  Scale 
than  on  the  Binet  Scale.  For  example,  a  high-school  boy  fifteen 
years  and  two  months  old  passed  every  test  in  the  Stanford-Binet 

TABLE  n.       RELATION  BETWEEN  THE  I.   Q.'S  OF   116  HIGH-SCHOOL 
PUPILS  EARNED  ON  THE  STANFORD-BINET  SCALE  AND  THE 
I.  Q.'S  OF  THE  SAME  PUPILS  EARNED  ON  EXAMINA- 
TION a,  ARMY  SCALE  


I.  Q.'s  on  Examination  a 

,  Army  Scale 

I.  Q.'s  on 

Stanford-Binet 
Scale 

80- 
89 

90- 
99 

100- 
109 

110- 
119 

{Median) 

120- 
129 

130- 
139 

140- 
149 

Totals 

/ 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

t 

9 

130-139 

3 

7 

3 
9 

5 

1 

11 

120-129 

1 

3 

21 

110-119    (Median) 

2 

8 

11 

9 

2 

32 

100-109 

13 
11 

3 
8 

4 

20 

90-99 

7 
5 

26 

80-89           .   . 

5 

70-79 

1 

1 

Totals 

1 

14 

33 

25 

23 

14 

6 

116 

Median  for  Binet  I.  Q.:  group,  110-119 
Median  for  Army  Scale  I.  Q.:  group,  110-119 
Correlation,  Pearson'i  formula,  0.736;  P.  E.,  0.029 

Scale,  thus  earning  a  mental  age  of  nineteen  years  and  six  months, 
and  an  I.Q.  of  129.  On  the  Army  Scale,  Examination  a,  he  made 
a  raw  score  of  219,  corresponding  to  a  mental  age  score  of 


TESTS  AND  SCHOOL  SUCCESS  19 

twenty-one  years  and  eleven  months,  and  an  I.Q.  of  144.'*  In 
other  words,  the  Stanford-Binet  Scale  does  not  give  the  superior 
high-school  pupil  an  opportunity  to  earn  as  high  an  1.0.  as  he  can 
earn  on  the  Army  Scale.  This  factor  would  tend  to  lower  the 
correlation  betwen  the  two  sets  of  I.O.'s.  The  correlation  ob- 
tained in  Table  II  (+0.736)  is  a  strong  indication  that  if  the 
Stanford-Binet  Scale  is  a  valid  means  of  finding  the  mental  level 
of  high-school  pupils,  the  Army  Scale  Examination  a  is  also  valid 
for  the  same  purpose. 

Army  Scai,e  Resui^ts  Compared  with  High-Schooi.  Marks 

The  school  work  of  all  the  high-school  pupils  examined  by 
means  of  the  two  army  group  tests  was  carefully  followed  up  for 
the  school  years  1917-1918  and  1918-1919.  The  marks  given 
were  reduced  to  a  comparable  basis  by  assigning  arbitrary  values 
to  each  type  of  mark  employed  by  the  various  high  schools.  Thus 
an  "A"  or  a  "1"  was  given  a  value  of  95 ;  a  "B"  or  a  "2,"  a  value 
of  85,  etc.  Letters  or  numbers  with  plus  and  minus  signs  were 
given  intermediate  values.  All  of  the  marks  earned  by  a  given 
pupil  were  averaged,  but  no  case  was  included  in  the  tables  un- 
less the  marks  for  at  least  two  semesters  of  school  work,  the 
equivalent  of  one  year,  were  available. 

1.  Army  Scale,  Group  Examination  a. — Table  III  makes  a 
comparison  between  the  I.Q.'s  obtained  from  the  Group  Exami- 
nation a  and  the  quality  of  high-school  work  of  494  high-school 
pupils.  The  total  number  taking  the  test  was  715,  but  only  494 
cases  had  ratings  for  one  year  of  school  work. 

Since  the  correlation  obtained  (+0.343)  is  12.8  times  the 
indicated  P.  E.,  it  has  considerable  significance.  While  it  is  not 
as  high  as  the  correlation  between  Binet  I.Q.'s  and  school  marks 
found  in  Table  I,  there  are  several  factors  which  may  have  tended 

*  Mental  age  norms  for  both  tests  of  the  Army  Scale  were  worked  out  by 
Dr.  Samuel  Kohs  and  the  writer.  It  was  found  that  about  fifteen  points  of  raw 
score  on  Examination  a  and  Examination  Alpha  corresponded  roughly  to  a 
mental  age  year.  Possible  raw  score,  Examination  a,  237,  possible  mental  age 
twenty-three  years ;  possible  raw  score,  Alpha  212,  possible  mental  age  23  years 
and  2  months.    See  Appendix. 


20 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


to  lower  the  correlation.  The  army  tests  were  designed  for  use 
with  soldiers  in  cantonments.  Many  of  the  questions  have  to 
do  with  matters  of  common  knowledge  about  a  military  camp, 
but  with  which  high-school  pupils  have  no  acquaintance.  This 
would  especially  affect  the  scores  of  high-school  girls.  There  are 
twenty  cases  falling  in  I.O.  groups  below  95,  where  the  indicated 
school  work  is  of  a  quality  of  80  percent  or  above,  and  fifteen  of 
these  cases,  or  75  percent,  are  girls. 

Another  factor  which  may  have  tended  to  lower  the  correla- 
tion is  the  skewness  of  the  school  marks  curve  toward  the  high 
percents.    The  median  school  marks  group  in  Table  III  is  80-84. 

TABLE  III.      CORRELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE  I.  Q.'s  OF  ARMY  GROUP 

EXAMINATION  a  AND  THE  QUALITY  OE  SCHOOL  WORK 

OF  494  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 


Army  Group  Examination  a  I.  Q.'s 

School 

Marks 

84  or 
Lower 

85- 
89 

90- 
94 

95- 
99 

100- 
104 

105- 
109 

(Median) 

110- 
114 

115- 
119 

120- 
124 

125  or 
Above 

Totals 

/ 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

s 

9 

10 

11 

12 

90  or  above 

3 

5 

2 
9 

2 
18 

3 
24 

6 

22 

6 

24 

6 

8 

6 

4 

34 

85-89 

114 

80-84   (Me- 
dian) .... 

1 

2 

9 

28 

41 

46 

30 

13 

9 

3 

182 

75-79 

70-74 

65-69 

1 
2 

3 
3 

1 

9 
4 

1 

19 

14 

4 

19 

11 

1 

19 

11 

1 

1 

19 
7 
2 

7 
1 
1 

2 
1 

98 
54 
11 

55-64   . 

Totals 

4 

9 

31 

76 

92 

105 

86 

52 

26 

13 

494 

Medians:    I.  Q.'s,  group,  105-109;  school  marks,  group  80-84 
Semi-interquartile  ranges:    I.  Q.'s,  6  points;    school  marks,  A^t  percent 
Correlation,  Pearson's  formula,  0.343;    P.  E.,  0.027 

This  represents  a  grade  of  "B"  or  "2."  It  is  necessary  for  these 
high-school  pupils  to  receive  marks  of  "B"  or  "2"  in  all  subjects 
required  for  university  recommendation.     The  Palo  Alto  High 


TESTS  AND  SCHOOL  SUCCESS 


21 


School  is  in  close  proximity  to  Stanford  University,  and  the  Oak- 
land high  schools  are  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  University 
of  California.  The  fact  that  68.8  percent  of  the  grades  given 
to  these  494  high-school  pupils  were  "B"  or  above  is  an  indication 
that  teachers  were  influenced  in  their  marking  by  the  demand  for 
"B"  grades  for  university  recommendation.  Many  pupils  with 
just  average  ability  were  given  marks  superior.  Hence  there 
might  be  a  rather  wide  difference  between  their  mental  ability  as 
shown  by  the  tests  and  their  school  progress  as  shown  by  their 
marks. 

2.  Army  Scale,  Group  Bxamination  Alplm. — Table  IV  com- 
pares the  I.Q.'s  of  480  of  the  high-school  pupils  of  San  Mateo, 
Redwood  City,  Mountain  View,  and  Santa  Clara  with  their  school 
marks.  There  were  624  pupils  belonging  to  these  high  schools 
who  took  Examination  Alpha,  but  only  480  cases  came  under  the 
rule  requiring  ratings  for  one  whole  year  of  school  work. 

TABLE  IV.      CORRELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE  I.  Q.'s  OF  THE  ARMY 

GROUP  EXAMINATION  ALPHA  AND  THE  QUALITY  OF 

SCHOOL  WORK  OF  480  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 


Army  Group  Examinaticn  Alpha 

LQ's 

School 

Marks 

84  or 
Lower 

85- 
89 

90- 
94 

95- 
99 

100- 
104 

105- 
109 

(Median) 

110- 
114 

115- 
119 

120- 

124 

125  or 
Above 

Totols 

/ 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

90  or  over. 

3 
8 
6 

25 

3 
17 
22 

33 

15 
15 
21 

12 
24 
20 

9 

13 
10 

9 
6 

5 

5 
6 
1 

56 

85-89 

89 

80-R4 

4 

89 

75-79   (Me- 
dian) .... 

7 

23 

10 

12 
8 

1 

7 

1 
1 

4 

1 

109 

70-74 

4 
3 

10 
3 
2 

18 

12 

5 

14 

7 
3 

22 
8 
1 

82 

65-69...   . 

1 

43 

55-64 

12 

Totals 

1 

7 

26 

77 

99 

105 

87 

41 

25 

12 

480 

Medians:    LQ.'s,  group  105-109;    school  marks,  groups  75-79 
Semi-interquartile  ranges:    I.Q.'s,  6  points;    school  marks,  6^  percent 
Correlation,  Pearson's  formula,  0.413;    P.  E.,  0.026 


22 


FSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


The  correlation  obtained  in  Table  IV  (-\-  0.413)  is  15.9  times 
the  indicated  P.  E.  and  0.07  higher  than  the  correlation  found  in 
Table  III.  The  higher  correlation  found  in  this  table  may  be 
due  to  the  fact  that  Examination  Alpha  was  the  result  of  care- 
ful revision  of  the  first  series  of  tests  in  the  light  of  preliminary 
experimentation  in  three  army  cantonments  and  of  the  returns 
from  the  tests  of  several  thousand  school  children.  Also,  the  high 
schools  in  which  Examination  Alpha  was  applied  were  not  in 
such  close  proximity  to  universities  as  were  the  high  schools  rep- 
resented in  Table  III.  The  group  median  for  school  marks  is 
75-79,  and  only  48.8  percent  of  the  ratings  given  in  these  four 
high  schools  ranged  as  high  as  "B"  or  over. 

When  account  is  taken  of  the  possible  reasons  for  the  differ- 
ence in  the  correlations  as  shown  in  Tables  III  and  IV,  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  they  are  of  approximately  equal  value.  For  use  in 
the  public  schools  Examination  Alpha  is  the  better  scale,  because 
it  consists  of  but  eight  tests,  can  be  given  in  less  time,  is  scored 
more  rapidly,  and  costs  less  to  print. 


TABLE  V.      DISTRIBUTION  ON  APRIL  1,  1919,  OF  107 
HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS  TESTED  WITH  STANFORD- 
BINET  SCALE  IN  1916-1917 


Binet  I.  Q.'s 
Earned  in 
1916-1917 

Total  Number 

of 

Cases 

Distribution  April  1,  1919, 1 

)y  Percents 

Out  at 
Work  (%) 

Out,  Transfer'd 

to  Other  High 

Schools  (%) 

Remaining  in 
Same  High 
School  (%) 

/ 

' 

3 

■* 

5 

79  or  lower 

80-89 

1 
7 
29 
27 
22 
15 
6 

100 

72 

31 

22 

0 

0 

0 

0 

14 

9 

22 
27 
13 
33 

0 
14 

90-99 

60 

100-109 

56 

110-119 

73 

120-129 

87 

130  or  above 

67 

No.  of  cases 

107 

21 

20 

66 

Median  I.  Q.'s 

94 

110 

110 

tests  and  school  success  23 

Individuai,  and  Group  Mentai,  Tests  as  Means  of 
Indicating  Probable  Retention  or  Elim- 
ination OF  High-School  Pupils 

1.  Blimination  among  pupils  tested  with  the  Stanford-Binet 
Scale.— On  the  first  day  of  April,  1919,  it  was  found  that  41  of 
the  original  107  pupils  tested  in  1916-1917  with  the  Stanford- 
Binet  Scale  had  dropped  out  of  school,  leaving  66  still  in  attend- 
ance. Table  V  gives  the  distribution  of  the  107  cases,  showing 
the  I.Q.'s  of  pupils  who  left  high  school  to  go  to  work,  of  pupils 
who  were  transferred  to  other  high  schools,  and  of  pupils  who 
still  remain  in  the  same  high  school. 

The  only  pupil  testing  below  80  I.O  dropped  out  at  the  end 
of  the  first  semester  of  1916-17  to  go  to  work.  All  of  those  in 
group  80-89  who  left  school  to  go  to  work  did  so  by  the  end  of 
the  first  year.  Failure  in  school  work  has  been  recognized  as  the 
most  fruitful  cause  of  elimination  from  high  school,  but  the  rela- 
tion between  mental  ability  and  failure  in  school  work  has  not 
heretofore  been  given  due  consideration.  At  the  end  of  two  and 
one-half  years  none  of  those  testing  below  80  and  only  28  per- 
cent of  those  testing  80-89  remain  in  high  school.  On  the  other 
hand,  100  percent  of  those  testing  110  or  over  are  pursuing  their 
studies  either  in  the  Palo  Alto  High  School  or  in  other  high 
schools.  When  the  average  school  ratings  of  the  different  groups 
are  taken  into  account  the  close  connection  between  mentality  and 
elimination  will  be  still  more  apparent.  The  average  school  rat- 
ing of  the  21  who  left  school  to  go  to  work  was  7Z  percent;  of 
the  20  transferred  to  other  high  schools,  77  percent;  and  of  the 
66  remaining  in  the  Palo  Alto  High  School,  79  percent. 

2.  Blimination  among  pupils  tested  ivith  the  Army  Examina- 
tion a  and  Alpha. — Only  five  of  the  eight  high  schools  where  the 
Army  Scale  was  applied  were  selected  for  follow-up  work  in  con- 
nection with  elimination  because  the  records  of  the  three  Oak- 
land high  schools  did  not  indicate  whether  the  pupil  leaving  had 
been  transferred  to  another  high  school  or  had  gone  to  work.  In 
the  case  of  the  Palo  Alto,  San  Mateo,  Redwood  City,  Mountain 


24 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


View,  and  Santa  Clara  high  schools,  it  was  comparatively  easy 
to  secure  reliable  data  with  reference  to  every  pupil  who  took  the 
test.  The  principals  of  all  these  schools  had  served  in  their  re- 
spective positions  from  four  to  fourteen  years,  knew  their  pupils 
thoroughly,  and  had  on  record  information  concerning  the  move- 
ments of  those  who  had  left  school  since  the  giving  of  the  Army 
Tests  in  1917-1918. 

Table  VI  gives  for  those  tested  with  the  Army  Scale  a  dis- 
tribution similar  to  that  contained  in  Table  V  for  the  107  tested 
with  the  Stanford-Binet  Scale.  The  955  pupils  of  the  five  high 
schools  above  mentioned  have  been  distributed  by  I.Q.'s  into  four 
groups :  ( 1 )  those  who  left  high  school  to  go  to  work ;  (2)  those 
who  transferred  to  some  other  high  school;  (3)  those  who  grad- 
uated ;  (4)  those  remaining  in  high  school  on  April  1,  1919.  The 
follow-up  work  covered  one  and  one-half  years  of  school  work. 
Figure  1  illustrates  graphically  the  data  of  Table  VI. 


TABI.E  VI.     DISTRIBUTION  OP  955  HIGH-SCHOOI,  PUPII.S  ON 

APRII,  1,  1919,  WHO  WERE  TESTED  WITH  ARMY 

TESTS  IN  1917-1918  BY  I.  Q.  GROUPS 


Total 

Number  of 

Cases 

Distribution  on  April  1,  1919,  by  Percents 

Army  Scale 

I.  Q.'s  Earned 

1917-1918 

Out  at 

Work 
(%) 

Out,  Trans- 
ferred to  Other 
High  School 

(%) 

Out  by 

Graduation 
(%) 

Remaining  in 
Same  High 
School  (%) 

/ 

i 

3 

4 

5 

i 

79  or  lower 

80-89 

90-99 

13 
73 
202 
283 
221 
101 
62 

61.5 

34.3 

26.2 

12.3 

4.0 

6.9 

1.6 

7.7 
8.2 
8.9 
8.8 
14.5 
11.8 
9.8 

0.0 
5.5 
11.4 
14.1 
23.0 
19.8 
24.6 

30.8 
52.0 
53.5 

100-109 

110-119 

120-129 

130  or  over 

64.8 
58.5 
61.4 
64.0 

No.  of  Cases .  . 

955 

138 

100 

153 

546 

Median  I.  Q.'s. 

96 

110 

111 

107 

Percent  I.  Q.'s 
below  100... 

62.4 

25.0 

17.6 

26.5 

TESTS  AND  SCHOOL  SUCCESS 


25 


,     l.i.'t     7?  or  80   -  89  yo  •  99  IOO-I09  HO-U9.  120-129  130-  or 

Slaver  kboT* 

^  ■■  Out  "at  worit*.        138  eaua's 

^  —    •  •tmnsfer*.      100        • 

*•  ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦•     *  •gruduntion"  ,153        ' 

FIGURE  1.     II^IyUSTRATlNG  TABLD  VI 

In  this  table  there  appears  to  be  a  strong  confirmation  of  tlie 
findings  of  Table  V,  as  the  following  comparison  will  show : 

TABLE  VIA.   MEDIAN  I.  Q.'S  BY  GROUPS 


Out  at  Work 

Out,  Transferred  to 
Other  High  School 

Remaining  in 
Same  High  School 

/ 

2 

J 

4 

Table  V 

94 
96 

110 
110 

110 

Table  VI 

107 

TABLE  VIB,   PERCENT  OF  PUPILS  IN  EACH  GROUP 
WHOSE  I  Q.'s  WERE  BELOW  100 


Out  at  Work 

Out,  Transferred  to 
other  High  Schools 

Remaining  in 
Same  High  School 

/ 

2 

J 

4 

Table  V 

71.4 
62.4 

20.0 
25.0 

27  0 

Table  VI... 

26  5 

26 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


The  agreement  between  the  two  tables  is  the  more  striking 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  107  high-school  pupils  of  Table  V 
were  all  first-year  pupils  when  the  tests  were  given,  while  the  955 
pupils  of  Table  VI  comprise  all  the  classes  of  five  dififerent  schools. 

The  tendency,  noted  in  the  discussion  of  Table  II,  for  girls 
to  make  lower  scores  on  the  Army  Scale  than  boys  accounts  for 
the  5.5  percent  of  pupils  with  I.O.'s  of  80-89  who  appear  in  the 
"out  by  graduation"  group.  These  four  pupils  were  all  girls, 
and  their  average  rating  in  school  work  was  83  percent. 

Table  VII  indicates  how  school  marks  tend  to  correspond  to 
mental  level  as  indicated  by  I.Q.'s  earned  in  the  Army  Tests. 

Considering  the  "at  work"  cases,  it  appears  that  only  the  three 
highest  I.Q.  groups  were  doing  a  passing  grade  of  work.     Lack 


TABLE  VII.      AVERAGE  SCHOOL  MARKS  OF  955  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 
DISTRIBUTED  ACCORDING  TO  THE  CAUSES  OF  LEAVING 


Cause  of  Leaving 

79 

I.  Q.  or 

Lower 

80- 

89 

LQ. 

90- 

99 

LQ. 

100- 
109 
LQ. 

110- 
119 
LQ. 

120- 
129 
LQ. 

130 
I.  Q.  or 
Higher 

General 
Averag( 

/ 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

g 

9 

At  work 

65 
59 

64 
67 

83 

72 
76 
79 

66 

72 
84 

70 

82 
85 

75 
85 
84 

87 
86 
92 

71  3 

Transferred 

Graduated 

75.3 
84  5 

Average    marks    by 
I.  Q.  groups 

62.0 

71.3 

75.6 

74.0 

79.0 

81.3 

88.3 

77.3 

of  mental  ability  was  perhaps  the  most  potent  cause  of  elimina- 
tion, but  it  was  not  the  only  cause  operating  in  these  cases.  When 
interest  in  the  subjects  offered,  application,  and  ambition  are  lack- 
ing, high  scores  in  the  mental  tests  are  not  necessarily  a  guarantee 
of  school  success.  Turning  now  to  the  pupils  transferred  to 
other  high  schools,  it  appears  that  they  made  better  average  marks 
under  every  I.Q.  group,  except  the  very  lowest,  than  did  the  "at 
work"  pupils;  but  it  is  evident  that  some  of  them  transferred 
to  other  high  schools  because  of  failure  in  school  work.     Later 


TESTS  AND  SCHOOL  SUCCESS  27 

checking  up  will  no  doubt  find  them  out  of  school  entirely.  All 
of  the  cases  in  the  "out  by  graduation"  group  show  high  aver- 
age school  marks,  even  those  whose  I.O.  is  between  80  and  89. 
These  are  the  same  four  cases  discussed  in  connection  with 
Table  VI.  They  illustrate  how  necessary  it  is  for  those  em- 
ploying mental  tests  to  be  conservative  in  accepting  the  results 
of  any  single  test  as  final. 

When  the  school  marks  earned  by  all  of  these  "out"  groups 
are  averaged  a  series  of  marks  is  obtained,  ascending  gradually 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  I.Q.  ratings,  which  indicates  a 
definite  tendency  for  the  quality  of  school  work  to  correspond 
to  the  mental  level  indicated  by  the  Army  Tests. 

A  further  following-up  of  the  153  who  graduated  from  the 
five  high  schools  between  September,  1917,  and  April,  1919, 
brought  out  the  fact  that  94  of  them  were  continuing  their  edu- 
cation in  college,  university,  or  normal  school.  The  median  I.Q. 
of  those  going  on  to  higher  educational  institutions  was  found  to 
be  116.  One  high-school  girl,  who  earned  an  I.Q.  of  140  on  the 
Army  Scale,  graduated  from  the  San  Mateo  High  School  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  years  and  five  months.  Because  of  the  minimum 
age  limit  of  fifteen  years  for  entrance  to  the  university,  she  was 
compelled  to  wait  seven  months  before  continuing  her  education. 
Had  her  case  been  included  in  the  "at  college"  group,  the  median 
I.Q.  would  have  been  118, 

Taking  into  account  all  of  the  cases  of  high-school  pupils 
tested  either  by  the  individual  or  group  method  of  mental  exami- 
nation we  find  the  following  ascending  scale  of  median  I.Q.'s 
as  a  further  indication  that  the  psychological  tests  disclosed  the 
approximate  mental  level  of  the  cases  discussed  in  the  foregoing 
tables :  first-year  high-school  pupils,  median  I.Q.  105 ;  high- 
school  graduates.  111;   those  going  on  to  college,  116. 

Summary 

1.  Individual  and  group  mental  tests  of  the  types  described 
have  been  shown  to  be  sufficiently  reliable  to  justify  their  use  as 
aids  in  determining  the  mental  level  of  high-school  pupils. 


28  PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

2.  Group  tests,  such  as  Army  Scale  Examinations  a  and 
Alpha,  make  possible  a  preliminary  mental  survey  of  an  entire 
high-school  population  at  the  beginning  of  a  school  year.  The 
resulting  raw  scores  will  be  found  to  be  of  great  value  in  group- 
ing the  pupils  according  to  ability.  Such  tests  should  always  be 
supplemented  with  every  other  possible  means  of  discovering  the 
mental  level.  The  results  should  be  considered  tentative  and 
subject  to  revision  in  the  light  of  later  developments. 

3.  The  high-school  principal  who  makes  such  a  preliminary 
mental  survey  of  his  pupils  can  be  reasonably  sure  that  50  per- 
cent of  those  who  test  below  normal  will  be  eliminated  within 
the  first  two  years;  that  25  percent  additional  of  the  subnormal 
group  will  have  been  transferred  to  other  high  schools  because 
of  failure  in  their  school  work ;  and  that  a  negligible  number  will 
ever  graduate.  With  this  information  at  hand  he  can  plan  the 
curriculums  of  his  pupils  more  intelligently.  Discovering  at  the 
outset  that  from  15  to  30  percent  of  his  pupils  are  incapable  of 
succeeding  in  the  conventional  high-school  subjects,  he  will  un- 
dertake to  make  new  adjustments  to  meet  the  situation.  There 
will  be  fewer  failures ;  more  pupils  will  remain  to  take  work  that 
is  adapted  to  their  needs  and  capacities ;  and  the  high  school  will 
be  less  open  to  the  charge  of  catering  only  to  the  intellectual 
aristocracy  among  its  pupils. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  USE  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  IN  THE  EDU- 
CATIONAL GUIDANCE  OF  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 

In  the  previous  chapter  the  writer  has  shown  that  there  is  a 
very  close  relationship  between  intelligence  level  and  the  elim- 
ination of  pupils  from  high  school.  There  are  good  grounds  for 
the  prediction  that  75  percent  of  those  who  test  below  average, 
mentally,  will  fail  in  more  than  one-half  of  their  studies  during 
their  first  year  of  high  school ;  that  50  percent  of  them  will  leave 
school  to  go  to  work  during  the  first  two  years ;  and  that  none 
of  them  will  remain  to  graduate.  The  members  of  this  group 
demand  special  attention.  If  they  are  not  carefully  guided  in 
the  selection  of  their  high-school  work  many  of  them  will  fail 
in  all  of  their  subjects  during  the  first  semester,  with  elimination 
as  the  inevitable  result. 

Heretofore  we  have  acted  upon  the  assumption  that  the  only 
way  to  discover  the  capabilities  of  high-school  pupils  was  to  per- 
mit them  to  try  themselves  out  in  various  subjects  of  the  high- 
school  curriculum.  It  has  even  been  a  common  practice  to  require 
all  first-year  high-school  pupils  to  take  an  abstract  subject  such 
as  algebra.  Thus  many  a  promising  educational  bark  has  gone 
down  on  the  uncharted  rocks  of  the  first-year  high-school  subjects. 

Experimentation  with  psychological  tests  has  now  reached  a 
stage  where  we  can  begin  to  hope  that  this  wasteful  trial  and  error 
method  of  procedure  is  to  be  discarded  for  a  more  scientific  plan 
of  educational  guidance.  No  tests  have  yet  been  devised,  either 
mental  or  pedagogical,  which  enable  the  adviser  to  chart  unerr- 
ingly the  educational  possibilities  of  a  given  youth,  but  we  have 
made  sufficient  progress  in  mental  measurements  to  be  able  to 
estimate  with  approximate  accuracy  the  probable  school  success 
of  a  given  pupil.  The  results  of  a  practical  experiment  in  edu- 
cational guidance  by  means  of  mental  tests  will  be  described  in 
the  following  pages. 

29 


30 


FSYCEOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


Conditions  Surrounding  the  Experiment 

The  mid-year  viii-a  class  of  the  Palo  Alto  intermediate  school 
comprising  31  pupils  was  examined  with  the  Stanford-Binet 
Scale  in  January,  1918.     Figure  2  shows  the  distribution  of  in- 


150 
I** 

140 

135 

X30 

125 

uo 

115 

UAv 

105 

190 

»5 

90 

85 

60 

75 

70 

45 
40 
55 


Chronolog-  16  Years        15  Years  14  Years  13  Years 

ical  Age      4  Cases  7  Cases  8  Cases  12  Cases 

FIGURE  2.  Illustrating  distribution  of  viii-a^  pupies  by  i.q.'s 

AND  CHRONOEOGICAE  AGES 

telligence  quotients  by  chronological  age  groups.  There  were 
twelve  thirteen-year-old  pupils,  eight  fourteen-year-old,  seven 
fifteen-year-old,  and  four  sixteen-year-old  pupils  examined.    The 


In  grade  designations  "A"  means  "second  half.** 


EDUCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  31 

lowest  I.O.  discovered  in  the  thirteen-year-old  group  was  1 10.  All 
of  the  thirteen-year-olds  were,  therefore,  accelerated  mentally. 
None  of  the  fourteen-year-old  group  fell  below  95  I.O.  They 
were  all  at  or  above  age  mentally.  One  fifteen-year-old  had  an 
I.O.  of  90  and  would  be  listed  as  "below  average"  in  intelligence. 
Of  the  four  sixteen-year-old  pupils,  all  of  whom  would  be  ac- 
counted chronologically  retarded,  three  had  I.O.'s  of  88,  and  one 
an  I.O.  of  96.  That  is  to  say,  one  of  the  sixteen-year-olds  was 
normal  and  three  would  rate  as  "dull-normal." 

Of  the  31  members  of  the  viii-a  class,  22  entered  the  Palo 
Alto  High  School  in  February,  1918.  Four  members  of  the  class 
entered  secondary  schools  elsewhere,  two  entered  business  col- 
leges, two  went  to  work,  and  one,  a  girl  with  an  I.O.  of  88,  eloped 
with  a  soldier  from  a  nearby  encampment. 

Only  four  members  of  this  viii-a  class  had  earned  I.O.'s  be- 
low 95.  One  of  these,  as  just  indicated,  did  not  enter  high 
school.  The  remaining  three  entered  high  school,  but  two  of 
them  dropped  out  before  the  end  of  the  first  year.  The  percent 
of  elimination  from  the  class  of  those  who  tested  below  95  I.O. 
was  therefore  75.0.  The  one  who  remains  in  high  school  is  mak- 
ing an  average  record  in  scholarship.  She  made  a  rating  of 
"average"  on  an  Army  Test  given  a  few  weeks  later,  and  has 
shown  herself  capable  of  diligent  application  to  her  school  work. 

Each  member  of  the  class  was  questioned  as  to  his  or  her 
vocational  ambition,  educational  plans,  and  the  subjects  which  he 
or  she  would  like  to  take  up  during  the  first  year  of  high  school. 
These  data,  as  well  as  results  attained  in  Stanford-Binet  and 
Army  Mental  Tests,  were  recorded  on  cards. 

Use  Made  oe  Information  Gathered 

The  cooperation  of  the  vice-principal  and  the  adviser  of  the 
entering  class  was  obtained  in  order  that  the  members  of  the  viii-a 
class  might  receive  intelligent  educational  guidance  when  they 
entered  the  high  school.  Duplicate  sets  of  cards  were  prepared 
for  the  use  of  these  persons.    On  registration  day  all  the  newly 


32  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

entered  viii-a  graduates  were  referred  to  the  vice-principal  or  the 
class  adviser  for  help  in  making  out  their  curriculums.  No  one 
was  permitted  to  file  a  study  card  without  this  conference. 

Following  are  samples  of  the  cards  used  in  this  experiment  in 
educational  guidance.  The  only  change  from  the  original  is  in 
the  case  of  the  name. 

CARD  NO.  1 

Smith,     Jane  chronological  age: 

13  yrs . ,    9   mo  . 

Score  Army  Scale.  .  .151       Stanford-Binet  mental  age: 
Army  Scale  mental  age:  16    yrS  .  ,     3    mO  . 

17   yrs . , 5  mo . 

Army  Scale  I.  Q 124       Stanford-Binet  I.  Q 118 

High  school  subjects  which      Educational  plans: 

pupil  desires  to  take:  To     finish    high 

Sewing  school   and   take 

i'rench  "business    college 

History  course. 

Typewriting  Vocational  ambition:  To   "be 

Piano  a  stenographer  or 

"bookkeeper. 

Grade  of  work  done  in  intermediate  and  grammar  schools: 

"B"    and   "B+" 

Comment    of  Examiner:     If    assigned    to     al- 

ge"bra  can  safely  he  placed  in 
first  "rapid  progress"  division. 

Jane  Smith  was  advised  to  take  subjects  that  would  make  it 
possible  for  her  to  go  on  to  college  as  well  as  to  carry  out  her 
ambition  to  become  a  stenographer.  She  took  up  English,  Ger- 
man, algebra,  and  typewriting.  During  the  first  semester  of  her 
high-school  course  she  made  an  average  of  "B"  in  all  of  her 
subjects. 

Card  No.  2  relates  to  Mary  Jones  who  took  exactly  the  sub- 
jects outlined  on  her  card,  except  that  being  a  first-year  pupil  she 


EDUCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 


33 


was  permitted  to  take  four  subjects  only  and  had  to  wait  until 
her  second  year  for  drawing.  At  the  end  of  the  first  semester 
in  high  school  she  had  earned  three  *'A"  grades  and  a  "B-f ," 
with  an  average  of  93  percent. 

CARD  NO.  2 


Jones,    Mary 

Score  Army  Scale.  . .  148 
Army  Scale,  mental  age: 

17   yrs . ,    2  mo. 

Army  Scale  I.  Q 131 


Chronological  age:  13  yrs  . , 

1  mo . 

Stanford-Binet  mental  age: 

17  yrs. ,    2  mo. 


Stanford-Binet  I.  Q 131 


High  school  subjects  which 
pupil  desires  to  take: 

English 
Algebra 
Latin 
History 
Drawing 


Educational  plans: 

To  finish  high 
school  and  attend 
a  university  or 
normal  school. 

Vocational    ambition:     To 

become  a  drawing 
teacher. 


Grade  of  work  done  in  grammar  and  intermediate  schools :   "  A  " 
Comment  of  Examiner:  KnoWS    jUSt    Where     She 

is  going  and  how  to  get  there. 
May  safely  "be  permitted  to  select 
her  own  course  of  study.   Assign 
to  first  division  in  algebra. 


Here  was  the  case  of  a  girl  with  very  superior  ability  as  in- 
dicated by  two  different  mental  examinations,  by  her  school  rec- 
ord and  by  the  estimates  of  her  elementary  and  intermediate 
school  teachers.  She  gave  evidence  of  being  an  independent 
thinker,  of  knowing  just  what  she  wanted  to  make  of  herself, 
and  just  what  she  would  have  to  do  by  way  of  preparation.  The 
necessity  for  educational  and  vocational  guidance  in  her  case 


34 


FSYCnOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


might  well  be  questioned.     However,  it  was  a  real  advantage 
to  her  teachers  to  know  at  the  very  beginning  of  her  high-school 


CARD  NO.  3 


Roe,    Richard 

Score  Army  Scale ...  1 5  0 
Army  Scale  mental  age: 

17   yrs  .  ,   4  mo  . 

Army  Scale  I.  Q 120 


Chronological  age:   14  yrS., 

4  mos  . 
Stanford-Binet  mental  age: 

16  yrs.    9  mo. 

Stanford-Binet  I.  Q 117 


High  school  subjects  which 
pupil  desires  to  take: 

English 
History 
Algebra 
iFrench 


Educational  plans: 

To  finish  high 
school  then  at- 
tend a  "university 
or  the  U.  S. 
naval  academy. 

Vocational  ambition:  Chemi- 
cal engineer  or 
naval  officer. 


Grade  of  work  done  in  elementary  and  intermediate  schools: 

Very  poor.  Estimated  as  "average" 
"by  some  grade  teachers,  and  as 
""below  average"  "by  others. 

Comment  of  Examiner:   Boy    has     ability    "but 

needs  to  "be  v/aked  up.   Suggest 
that  he  take  general  science  in 
place  of  history  for  first 
year.   Also  suggest  that  he  he 
placed  in  first  division  in  alge- 
bra where  he  will  have  to  work. 
He  will  need  to  develop  ability 
in  "both  science  and  mathematics  if 
he  is  to  follow  his  vocational 
am"bition. 


career  the  quality  of  her  ability  and  something  of  her  life  plans 
in  order  that  they  might  give  immediate  and  sympathetic  co- 


EDUCATIONAL   GUIDANCE  35 

operation.  Without  this  knowledge  they  might  have  made  the 
mistake  of  holding  her  back  to  the  pace  of  the  "average"  pupil. 
Fortified  by  the  facts  relative  to  her  mental  gifts  and  vocational 
ambitions,  she  is  to  be  permitted  to  complete  her  high-school 
course  in  three  years. 

CARD  NO.  4 


Brown,    Carrie  Chronological  age:  15  yrs  ., 

Score  Army  Scale...  100  7    mO  . 

Army  Scale  mental  age:  Stanford-Binet  mental  age: 

14yr3.,Omo.,  14   yrs  .  ,    2  mo  . 

Army  Scale  I.  Q 89         Stanford-Binet  I.  Q 90 

High  school  subjects  which 

pupil  desires  to  take:  Educational  plans: 

English  To  go  to  Mills 

Algetra,         College 

^^"tin  Vocational  ambition:  To    be 

Typing  a  Chemist. 

Drawing 

Grade  of  work  done  in  intermediate  and  grammar  schools: 

Grades  in  8A  class  only  fair,  even 
in  work  that   is  "being  repeated. 
Estimates  of  elementary  and  inter- 
mediate teachers:  "slow"  but 
a  conscientious  worker. 

Comment  of  Examiner:  Should  be  discour- 
aged as  to  taking  Latin.   Algebra 
doubtful,  but  if  she  insists  in 
view  of  desire  to  go  to  college, 
assign  to  second  division. 

There  is  just  as  much  danger  that  the  bright  pupil  will  not 
be  given  enough  to  do,  as  that  the  dull  pupil  will  be  gi\ch  tasks 
that  are  too  difficult  to  perform. 

The  boy  whose  card  is  set  forth  above  enrolled  for  English, 
algebra,  history,  and  general  science,  upon  entering  high  school. 
During  his  first  half  year  he  made  grades  of  "C"  in  Knglish,  and 


36  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

"B"  in  each  of  his 'Other  subjects.  This  was  a  great  improve- 
ment over  the  grades  earned  by  him  in  the  eighth  grade.  A  re- 
cent checking  up  shows  that  he  has  brought  up  his  English  grade 
and  is  maintaining  college  recommendation  standing  in  all  his 
work.  The  mental  tests  were  an  aid  to  his  advisers  in  discovering 
how  to  spur  him  on  to  creditable  achievement  in  his  school  work. 

The  program  finally  worked  out  by  Carrie  Brown  and  the 
class  adviser  included  English,  algebra,  free-hand  drawing,  and 
typing.  Her  grades  at  the  end  of  the  first  semester  in  high  school 
were:  English,  "C" ;  algebra,  "E"  (failure);  free-hand  draw- 
ing, "C";  typing,  "B."  She  had  failed  in  algebra,  the  subject 
counted  as  doubtful  by  the  examiner,  and  had  earned  less  than 
college  recommendation  grades  in  the  only  other  subjects  that 
would  be  counted  toward  entrance  to  Mills  College.  Even  if  she 
completes  high  school  her  chance  of  continuing  in  college  is  not 
at  all  bright. 

A  sufficient  number  of  sample  cards  has  been  described  to 
illustrate  the  method  employed.  There  was  no  coercion.  Coun- 
sel and  advice  in  the  selection  of  subjects  were  all  that  was  at- 
tempted, but  the  counsel  and  advice  offered  were  based  on  all  the 
significant  information  with  regard  to  mental  ability,  school  suc- 
cess, vocational  ambition,  and  teachers'  estimates  of  ability  that 
could  be  obtained.  Certain  pupils  elected  to  take  subjects  which 
the  advisers  felt  sure  they  would  fail  in  and  made  passing  grades. 
Others  taking  subjects  on  the  advice  of  the  counselors  failed. 
Such  cases  simply  illustrate  the  truth  that  no  human  agency, 
however  fortified  with  information  or  however  careful  to  mix 
common  sense  with  theories,  can  hope  to  be  infallible.  The  gen- 
eral results  of  the  experiment,  however,  were  very  satisfactory. 

ResuIvTs  Attained  by  "Guided"  and  "Unguided" 
High-School  Pupils 

The  original  group  of  107  high-school  pupils  which  entered 
the  Palo  Alto  High  School  in  September,  1916,  were  examined 
with  the  Stanford-Binet  Scale  after  entering  high  school.    They 


EDUCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 


37 


had  already  selected  their  courses  of  study  at  the  time  of  being 
examined.  They  may  therefore  properly  be  designated  as  the 
"unguided"  group.  A  comparison  of  the  first  year's  work  done 
by  the  members  of  the  "unguided"  group  with  the  work  done  by 
the  group  of  22  that  entered  high  school  in  February,  1918,  and 
which  had  the  benefit  of  counsel  based  on  mental  tests  and  other 
significant  data,  will  illustrate  the  value  of  careful  guidance  as 
against  the  trial  and  error  method  of  selecting  high-school  courses 
of  study. 

TABI,!)  VIII.      COMPARATIVE  FACTS  REGARDING  "GUIDEd"  AND 

"unguided"  groups  of  high-school,  pupies 


Group 

Out  at 
Work 

Per- 
cent 

Out  by 
Transfer 

Per- 
cent 

Failed 

1 
Subject 

Per- 
cent 

Failed 
2  or 
More 

Per- 
cent 

Guided .... 
Unguided .  . 

1 
13 

4.5 
12.1 

2 
14 

9.1 
13.1 

4 
33 

18.2 
30  8 

0 
11 

0  0 
10  3 

It  is  not  exactly  true  to  fact  to  designate  the  original  group  of 
107  as  the  "unguided"  group.  IMost  of  them  had  been  examined 
with  the  Stanford-Binet  before  the  end  of  the  first  six-week 
period.  Whenever  the  results  of  the  first  six  weeks  of  school 
work  confirmed  the  indications  of  the  mental  tests  that  a  pupil 
would  probably  fail  in  such  abstract  subjects  as  algebra,  Latin, 
etc.,  that  pupil  was  permitted  to  drop  the  subject  and  continue 
the  semester  carrying  but  three  subjects.  The  subject  dropped 
at  the  end  of  the  first  six-week  period  was  not  counted  as  a  fail- 
ure in  compiling  the  data  for  Table  VIII.  The  mental  tests  were 
utilized  to  aid  in  correcting  the  mistakes  made  by  the  pupils  in 
the  unguided  selection  of  their  subjects.  To  this  extent,  tlien, 
the  original  group  was  guided,  but  the  guidance  came  after,  not 
before  school  work  was  begun. 

The  number  of  failures  registered  against  the  "unguided" 
group  at  the  end  of  their  first  year  in  high  school  would  undoubt- 
edly have  been  greatly  increased  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  lim- 
ited guidance  above  described.  This  fact  gives  greater  signifi- 
cance to  the  data  presented  in  Table  VIII, 


1485(iH 


38 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


The  median  I.O.  of  the  unguided  group  was  105,  and  the 
median  I.O.  of  the  guided  group  was  108,  a  difference  of  three 
points  in  favor  of  the  guided  group,  but  this  is  not  in  itself  an 
adequate  explanation  of  the  superior  record  made  by  the  guided 
group  during  its  first  year  in  high  school. 

The  most  significant  facts  to  be  found  in  Table  VIII  are  those 
relating  to  number  of  failures  in  one  subject,  and  in  two  or  more 
subjects.  It  appears  that  30.8  percent  of  the  unguided  group 
failed  in  one  subject,  and  10.3  percent  failed  in  two  or  more  sub- 
jects during  their  first  year  in  high  school,  while  of  the  guided 
group  only  18.2  percent  failed  in  one  subject  and  none  of  them 
failed  in  two  subjects.  Since  it  has  been  shown  that  failures  in 
school  work  tend  to  increase  the  percent  of  elimination  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  attribute  the  small  percent  of  elimination  due  to  leav- 
ing high  school  to  go  to  work,  in  the  case  of  the  guided  group,  to 
entire  absence  of  failures  in  two  or  more  subjects. 

The  results  of  the  above  described  experiment  in  educational 
guidance  by  means  of  mental  tests  would  seem  to  justify  the  con- 
clusion that  such  tests  may  be  of  material  assistance  to  the  high- 
school  administrator,  if  used  in  connection  with  other  significant 
data.  It  is  certain  that  the  methods  applied  in  this  instance,  if 
employed  in  any  high  school,  would  prove  greatly  superior  to  the 
wasteful  "trial  and  error"  methods  that  now  prevail. 


TABLE  IX.      CORRELATIONS  BETWEEN  I.Q.'s  AND  GRADES  IN 
AEGEBRA  OE  113  HIGH-SCHOOE  PUPIES 


Algebra 
Grades 

I.  Q.'s  (Stanford-Binet) 

80- 
84 

85- 
80 

90- 
94 

95- 
99 

100- 
104 

105- 
109 

110- 
114 

115- 
119 

120- 
124 

125- 
over 

Totals 

"A" 

2 

1 

3 

0 

1 
7 
5 

1 
2 
5 
3 

1 
2 
5 
3 

3 
5 
2 
3 
1 

11 

"B  +  ".  .  . 

10 

"B" 

2 
1 

2 

4 

3 
5 

1 
2 
3 

7 

6 

...  .. 

3 
2 

1 

1 
1 

36 

"C" 

32 

"C-" 

3 

"D" 

1 
3 

'■■5' 

1 
2 

6 

"E" 

1 

15 

Totals. . 

1 

7 

11 

16 

15 

11 

16 

11 

11 

14 

113 

Correlation  (Pearson) :  0.46 
Probable  error:  0.05 


educational  guidance  39 

Relation  of  General  Levee  of  Intelligence  to  Success 
IN  A  Given  Subject 

In  Table  IX  is  shown  the  correlation  between  general  levels 
of  intelligence  and  high-school  grades  in  algebra.  The  algebra 
grades  are  recorded  under  the  letters  A,  B+,  B,  C,  C— ,  D,  and  E. 
The  LQ.'s  come  under  the  groups  85-89,  90-94,  95-99,  etc. 

The  correlation  obtained,  0.46,  which  is  nine  times  the  prob- 
able error,  can  be  counted  as  having  considerable  significance.  An 
examination  of  the  data  contained  in  Table  IX  will  show  that 
twelve  of  the  fifteen  failures  in  algebra,  or  80.0  percent  of  the 
total  number  of  failures,  were  earned  by  pupils  with  I.O.'s  below 
100.  There  were  35  pupils  having  I.O.'s  below  100,  and  26  of 
them,  or  74.3  percent  earned  marks  below  "B,"  which  is  the  col- 
lege recommendation  grade  in  California.  On  the  other  hand 
there  were  78  pupils  with  LQ.'s  above  100,  and  45  of  these,  or  63.0 
percent,  earned  marks  of  "B"  or  above.  An  I.O.  of  120  or  over 
denotes  very  superior  intelligence.  There  are  25  cases  with  LQ.'s 
120  or  over  in  Table  IX.  All  of  these  succeeded  in  earning  pass- 
ing grades  in  algebra.    Only  one  received  a  mark  as  low  as  "C — ." 

High-school  statistics  show  that  algebra  is  responsible  for 
more  failures  of  first-year  pupils  than  any  other  subject.  Table 
IX  suggests  that  probable  success  or  failure  in  algebra  can  be 
inferred  from  the  general  level  of  intelligence  as  disclosed  by 
mental  tests.  It  follows  that  the  high  percent  of  failure  in  algebra 
could  be  materially  reduced  if  only  those  were  encouraged  to  take 
the  subject  whose  general  level  of  intelligence  measured  up  to 
average  or  better. 

Relation  of  Score  in  a  Particular  Mental  Test  to  Suc- 
cess IN  A  Given  High-School  Subject 

Test  No.  9,  in  Army  vScale,  Group  Examinations  a  and  b,  is  a 
"word  relations"  test.  It  involves  a  knowledge  of  word  meanings 
and  also  the  ability  to  use  words  intelligently  in  their  proper  re- 
lations to  one  another.  Table  X  compares  the  scores  made  by 
171  first-year  pupils  of  the  Palo  Alto  High  School  in  Test  No.  9 


40 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


with  the  grades  made  by  the  same  pupils  in  English  during  their 
first  high-school  year. 

The  directions  for  giving  the  test  are  as  follows : 
In  each  of  the  lines  below,  the  first  two  words  have  a  certain  rela- 
tion.    Notice  that  relation  and  draw  a  line  under  the  one  word  in  the 
parenthesis  which  has  that  particular  relation  to  the  third  word.     Begin 
with  No.  I  and  mark  as  many  sets  as  you  can  before  time  is  called. 

TABLE  X.    CORRELATIONS  BETWEEN  GRADES  IN  ENGLISH  AND 

SCORES  IN  GROUP  INTELLIGENCE  TEST  NO.  9  OF  ARMY 

SCALE  OF  171  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 


Marks  in 

Scores  in  Test  No.  9,  Examinations  a  and  b 

First  Year 
English 

1- 

4 

5- 
9 

10- 
14 

15- 
19 

20- 
24 

25- 
29 

30- 
34 

35- 
39 

40 

Totals 

"A"     

1 

1 

5 

17 

4 
7 

16 
17 

1 
1 

1 

14 
19 

8 

1 

3 
10 
13 

6 

2 
2 
6 

2 

11 

"B+" 

1 
1 
9 

35 

"B" 

60 

"C" 

3 

62 

"D"                 

2 

"E"   

1 

Totals. 

3 

11 

24 

46 

43 

32 

12 

171 

Correlation  (Pearson) 
Probable  error:  0.04 


0.48 


Sample  sets  are  then  given  by  the  examiner  to  illustrate  what 
is  wanted : 

sky — blue :  grass — (grow,  green,  cut,  dead) 
fish — swims:  man — (boy,  woman,  walks,  girl) 
day — night:  white — (red,  black,  clear,  pure) 

There  were  forty  sets  of  words  and  the  time  allowed  was 
three  minutes.  For  purposes  of  tabulation  the  scores  made  by  the 
pupils  are  grouped  :  1 — 4,  5 — 9,. .  .35 — 39,  40 — .  The  English 
grades  are  indicated  by  the  letters  A,  B-f-,  B,  C,  C — ,  D  and  E. 

The  correlation,  0.478,  is  twelve  times  the  probable  error  and 
indicates  that  a  good  score  in  the  "word  relations"  test  is  a  fairly 
good  index  of  ability  in  first-year  high-school  English.  The 
marks  in  English  were  the  final  year  marks,  which  represent  the 
minimum  of  "D's"  and  "E's,"  because  all  conditions  and  failures 
had  been  removed  that  could  be  made  up.    The  median  score  in 


EDUCATIONAL   GUIDANCE  41 

Test  No.  9  was  26,  and  hence  scores  of  30  or  over  could  be  consid- 
ered superior.  There  were  44  pupils  who  made  scores  of  30  or 
over,  and  36  of  these  or  82.0  percent  made  marks  in  first-year 
English  of  "B"  or  above.  Of  the  89  who  made  scores  of  from  20 
to  29  inclusive,  68.5  percent  made  marks  in  first-year  English  of 
"B"  or  above;  while  of  the  38  who  made  scores  of  from  one  to 
nineteen  inclusive,  only  23.7  percent  made  marks  of  "B"  or  above. 

Stated  in  terms  of  recommendation  for  college  the  above 
analysis  of  the  data  of  Table  X  means  that  76.3  percent  of  the 
high-school  pupils  whose  ability  in  word  relations  is  represented 
by  a  score  of  less  than  20  fail  to  secure  a  college  recommendation 
grade,  while  only  18.0  percent  of  those  who  attain  a  score  of  30 
or  over  in  the  same  test  fail  to  secure  such  a  grade. 

These  results  seem  to  indicate  that  a  series  of  tests  involving 
the  fundamental  traits  of  mind  essential  to  the  successful  study 
of  English  could  be  devised.  But  there  are  so  many  mental  traits 
involved  in  the  mastery  of  the  subject  of  English  that  a  series  of 
tests  bringing  into  play  all  those  traits  would  undoubtedly  be 
found  to  be  a  good  test  of  general  intelligence  as  well  as  a  test 
of  specific  ability  in  English, 

Summary  and  Conci^usions 

1,  The  results  of  an  experiment  in  educational  guidance,  in 
which  all  the  members  of  an  viii-a  class  about  to  enter  high  school 
were  given  mental  tests  and  advised  with  reference  to  their  first- 
year  high-school  work,  proved  very  satisfactory.  Compared  with 
an  unguided  group  it  was  found  that  while  31  percent  of  the  un- 
guided  group  failed  in  one  subject,  and  10  percent  failed  in  two 
or  more  subjects  during  their  first  high-school  year,  only  18  per- 
cent of  the  guided  group  failed  in  one  subject  and  none  of  them 
failed  in  two  subjects.  The  mental  tests  aided  in  the  discovery 
of  the  pupil's  general  level  of  intelligence,  made  possible  the  giv- 
ing of  sound  educational  advice  at  the  time  when  it  would  do  the 
most  good,  and  thus  tended  to  reduce  the  percent  of  failure  and 
elimination.  The  methods  employed  can  be  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  any  high  school. 


42  FSYCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

2.  The  general  level  of  intelligence  is  shown  to  have  real 
significance  as  a  means  of  predicting  success  in  a  particular  sub- 
ject, such  as  algebra.  In  Table  IX  it  was  shown  that  100  percent 
of  those  having  I.O.'s  of  120  or  over  passed  in  their  algebra, 
while  40  percent  of  those  with  I.Q.'s  below  100  either  failed  or 
were  conditioned  in  algebra,  and  only  26  percent  of  the  members 
of  this  group  earned  college  recommendation  grades.  The  gen- 
eral level  of  intelligence  could  be  relied  upon  as  a  means  of  select- 
ing those  who  would  be  most  likely  to  succeed  in  algebra  and 
kindred  subjects. 

3.  Success  in  a  particular  test  of  a  series  may  be  a  fairly  re- 
liable index  of  success  in  a  high-school  subject  involving  the 
mental  traits  supposed  to  be  measured  by  the  test  in  question. 
High  scores  in  the  "word-relations"  test  of  the  Army  Scale,  Ex- 
aminations a  and  b,  correspond  generally  to  high  marks  in  first- 
year  high-school  English,  while  scores  below  twenty  in  the  same 
test  correspond  generally  to  low  marks  in  the  same  subject. 

4.  Mental  tests  for  purposes  of  prognosis  in  individual  high- 
school  subjects  such  as  algebra,  English,  etc.,  could  no  doubt  be 
devised.  But  the  mastery  of  any  high-school  subject  involves 
such  a  complex  of  mental  traits  that  any  test  which  proves  to  be 
a  good  test  of  ability  to  succeed  in  one  subject  is  quite  apt  to  be 
found  a  good  test  of  general  mental  ability.  It  has  already  been 
shown  that  a  high-school  pupil  having  a  high  level  of  intelli- 
gence will  probably  succeed  in  all  of  his  subjects,  and  conversely 
that  a  pupil  having  a  low  level  of  intelligence  is  apt  to  fail  in  most 
of  his  high-school  subjects.  The  best  way,  therefore,  in  which  to 
arrive  at  an  estimate  of  a  given  pupil's  probable  success  in  a 
specific  high-school  subject  is  to  discover  the  general  level  of  his 
intelligence.  It  follows  that  standardized  mental  tests  may  ren- 
der invaluable  service  in  the  educational  guidance  of  high-school 
pupils.  Particularly  will  this  be  found  to  be  true  if  the  results 
of  the  mental  test  are  interpreted  in  the  light  of  other  significant 
data,  such  as  school  marks  made  in  previous  grades,  teachers' 
estimates  of  ability,  and  educational  and  vocational  plans. 


CHAPTER  IV 

STATUS  OF  ONE  HUNDRED  THIRTY-ONE  CASES, 

TESTED  WITH  STANFORD  REVISION  OF 

BINET  SCALE,  AND  FOLLOWED  UP 

FOR  PERIOD  OF  SIX  YEARS 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  National  Research  Council  one  of 
the  points  emphasized  was  the  need  for  long  time  follow-up  rec- 
ords on  large  groups  of  individuals  who  had  been  given  tests 
with  standard  intelligence  scales.  The  results  of  such  a  follow-up 
are  set  forth  in  this  chapter.  One  group  of  high-school  pupils, 
numbering  107,  was  tested  with  the  Stanford  Revision  of  the 
Binet  Scale  after  entering  high  school  in  1916,^  and  another 
group  of  viii-A  pupils,  numbering  31,  was  given  the  same  test 
before  entering  high  school  in  1917.^  Five  of  the  second  group 
never  entered  high  school  and  two  of  the  first  group  did  not  stay- 
long  enough  to  make  any  tangible  record.  This  leaves  one  hun- 
dred thirty-one  who  entered  high  school  and  stayed  long  enough 
to  secure  some  sort  of  report  on  their  scholastic  effort.  The  first 
follow-up,  made  in  April,  1919,  is  summarized  in  Chapter  II, 
page  22,  for  the  first  group  of  107,  and  in  Chapter  III,  page  31, 
for  the  second  group  of  31. 

The  data  included  in  this  chapter  represent  the  situation  as 
it  was  found  on  June  1,  1923,  seven  years  after  the  first  group 
and  six  years  after  the  second  group  had  been  given  the  psycho- 
logical tests.  All  of  the  pupils  who  were  still  in  high  school  in 
1917-1918  were  also  given  the  U.  S.  Army  Alpha  or  Examina- 
tions a  and  b.  In  the  following  tables  an  effort  has  been  made 
to  set  forth  all  of  the  significant  facts  regarding  the  one  hundred 
thirty-one  cases  which  it  has  been  possible  to  follow  up.  This 
information  includes :  Binet  I.O.,  Army  Test  I.O.,  average  high- 
school  marks,  father's  occupation,  vocational  ambition  while  in 
high  school,  educational  plan  while  in  high  school,  time  spent  in 


^  See  note  1,  page  15,  this  Monograph. 
'  See  page  30. 


43 


44  FSYCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

high  school,  present  occupation  if  employed,  sex,  and  institution 
attended  if  in  a  higher  institution. 

The  data  are  treated  in  four  tables :  Table  XI,  where  all  the 
cases  are  arranged  according  to  rank  order  by  I.Q.,  on  the  Binet 
Scale;  Table  XII  (a),  thirty  cases,  those  who  did  not  complete 
high  school;  Table  XII  (b),  thirty-four  cases,  those  who  did 
complete  high  school,  but  who  did  not  go  any  farther  with  their 
education;  Table  XIII  (a)  and  (b),  sixty-seven  cases,  those  at- 
tending higher  institutions. 

Before  taking  up  the  discussion  of  these  tables  a  few  gen- 
eral observations  regarding  the  high  school  attended  by  the  pupils 
under  consideration,  and  the  community  in  which  it  is  located, 
will  throw  some  light  on  the  general  character  of  the  results  dis- 
closed. The  Palo  Alto  Union  High  School  District  is  made  up 
of  the  elementary  districts  of  Palo  Alto,  Mayfield,  and  Stanford 
University  Campus,  all  of  which  are  residential  communities  in- 
fluenced as  to  character  of  population  by  the  proximity  of  Stan- 
ford University.  The  influence*  of  the  university  is  shown  in 
the  educational  plans  of  the  high-school  pupils,  eighty-two  of 
whom,  or  63  percent,  expressed  a  desire  to  attend  institutions 
above  the  grade  of  Business  College.  The  program  of  studies 
of  the  Palo  Alto  High  School  itself  is  predominantly  academic 
and  in  the  educational  guidance  given  to  pupils  the  College  En- 
trance Curriculum  is  featured.  The  selective  nature  of  the  uni- 
versity on  the  Palo  Alto  high-school  population  is  illustrated 
clearly  in  the  results  of  this  follow-up  study.  In  the  country  at 
large  not  more  than  sixty  out  of  one  hundred  thirty-one  pupils 
entering  high  school  would  have  graduated  and  not  more  than 
thirty  would  have  gone  on  to  higher  institutions.^  Of  the  one 
hundred  thirty-one  pupils  who  entered  the  Palo  Alto  Union  High 
School  as  above  indicated  in  1916-17  and  the  January  class  of 
1917-18,  101,  or  77  percent  graduated  at  the  end  of  four  years 
or  less,  and  67,  or  51  percent,  were  in  higher  institutions  of 
learning  on  June  1,  1923.    Other  results,  characteristic  of  a  uni- 


•  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Ed.  BuUetin,  1919.    No.  91.    Pp.  229  and  239. 


CASES  FOLLOWED   UP  45 

versity  community,  will  be  evident  as  the  data  presented  in  the 
four  tables  above  referred  to  are  analyzed. 

A  reasonably  accurate  follow-up,  covering  so  long  a  period, 
has  been  made  possible  by  the  fact  that  the  Palo  Alto  Union  High 
School  has  had  the  same  principal,  Mr.  Walter  H.  Nichols,  and 
the  same  vice-principal,  Miss  Rebecca  Green,  since  1915.  This 
fortunate  circumstance  made  it  possible  for  the  writer  and  his 
two  assistants.  Miss  Helen  Ward  and  Miss  Madeline  Dallas,  both 
graduate  students  in  Stanford  University,  to  secure  readily  any 
desired  information. 

1.  Discussion  of  Table  XI. — In  this  table  all  of  the  cases  are 
arranged  in  rank  order  according  to  the  results  of  the  Binet  test 
and  in  quarters.  The  summary  of  Table  XI  by  quarters  is  sig- 
nificant from  the  standpoint  of  educational  guidance.  Of  those 
who  did  not  complete  high  school,  87  percent  are  found  in  the 
third  and  fourth  quarters,  (lower  half )  ;  13  percent  in  the  sec- 
ond and  none  at  all  in  the  top  quarter  according  to  mental  ability. 
Of  those  who  went  onto  higher  institutions,78  percent  are  found 
in  the  top  half  of  the  distribution  according  to  ability,  and  only 
6  percent  of  such  cases  appear  in  the  fourth  or  lowest  quarter. 
Those  who  graduated  from  high  school  but  did  not  go  beyond 
occupy  about  a  middle  ground  in  the  distribution,  since  67  per- 
cent of  them  are  found  in  the  second  and  third  quarters.  Suc- 
cess in  high-school  studies  seems  to  be  directly  related  to  mental 
ability,  as  shown  by  the  median  marks  earned  by  the  pupils  in 
each  quarter,  i.  e.,  B  -f  for  the  first  quarter,  B  for  the  second, 
B  —  for  the  third  and  C  +  for  the  fourth. 

Sex  differences  in  ability  and  in  school  success  are  shown  in 
the  last  two  columns  of  the  general  summary  and  the  summary 
of  high-school  marks.  There  are  72  boys,  and  58  percent  of  them 
are  found  in  the  top  half  of  the  distribution;  while  of  the  59 
girls,  only  40  percent  are  found  in  the  top  half.  The  superior 
ability  of  the  boys  is  further  shown  in  that  their  median  I.O.  on 
the  Binet  Scale  is  109,  while  the  median  I.Q.  of  the  girls  is  103. 
When  it  comes  to  school  achievement,  however,  the  girls  make 
the  better  showing.     The  median  mark  of  the  boys  in  the  top 


46 


FSYCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


TABI.E   XI.      ARRANGEMENT   OF    131    CASES   ACCORDING   TO   RANK 
ORDER  OF   I.Q.   ON   STANFORD  REVISION  OF   BINET  SCALE 




Top  or 

FlEST    QUAKTER 

Second  Quahter 

Case 

I.Q. 

I.  Q. 

H.  S. 

Status  in 

Case 

I.Q. 

I.Q. 

H.  S. 

Status  in 

No. 

Binet 

Group 

Marks 

June,  1923 

Sex 
B 

No. 
34 

Binet 

Group 

Marks 

June,  1923 

Sex 

1 

142 

B 

L'niversity 

119 

110 

c+ 

University 

B 

2 

137 

i48 

c+ 

University 

B 

35 

118 

126 

B  + 

Gr.HS.Mar. 

G 

3 

137 

140 

B  + 

University 

B 

36 

118 

115 

A- 

University 

B 

4 

135 

132 

A- 

University 

B 

37 

118 

102 

B  + 

University 

B 

5 

134 

140 

B- 

University 

B 

38 

118 

B 

University 

G 

6 

134 

134 

B 

University 

B 

39 

117 

i26 

B  + 

Gr.HS.Mar. 

G 

7 

133 

132 

B 

University 

G 

40 

116 

118 

C 

HS.  lyr.  Lab. 

B 

8 

132 

130 

B  + 

University 

B 

41 

116 

112 

c+ 

University 

B 

9 

132 

116 

B- 

University 

B 

42 

116 

107 

B  + 

University 

G 

10 

131 

145 

A- 

University 

B 

43 

115 

125 

B 

University 

B 

11 

131 

130 

A- 

University 

G 

44 

115 

108 

B  + 

University 

G 

12 

131 

B  + 

University 

G 

45 

115 

106 

B 

University 

B 

13 

129 

124 

B 

University 

B 

46 

115 

B- 

University 

B 

14 

128 

133 

B  + 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

47 

114 

ii2 

c+ 

HS.  3yr.  Bus. 

B 

15 

127 

138 

B  + 

University 

B 

48 

114 

A- 

University 

B 

16 

127 

128 

B- 

University 

B 

49 

113 

i25 

c+ 

Gr.  HS.  Art 

G 

17 

125 

141 

A 

University 

G 

50 

113 

118 

B  + 

Gr.  HS.  Mar. 

G 

18 

125 

135 

A 

University 

B 

51 

113 

101 

C 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

19 

125 

128 

B 

University 

G 

52 

112 

115 

B 

University 

G 

20 

124 

132 

A- 

University 

B 

53 

112 

113 

B- 

HS.3i^yr.Hm. 

G 

21 

124 

132 

B 

University 

B 

54 

112 

108 

B 

University 

B 

22 

123 

133 

B  + 

University 

B 

55 

111 

113 

A- 

University 

G 

23 

123 

127 

B 

University 

B 

56 

111 

95 

c+ 

University 

G 

24 

123 

120 

B- 

University 

B 

57 

110 

120 

B 

University 

B 

25 

123 

A- 

University 

B 

58 

110 

115 

B  + 

University 

G 

26 

122 

i27 

B- 

University 

G 

59 

110 

112 

B 

University 

G 

27 

122 

110 

B 

Normal  Sch. 

G 

60 

110 

107 

B  + 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

28 

122 

109 

B 

Agri.  Col. 

B 

61 

109 

B 

University 

B 

29 

121 

130 

B- 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

62 

109 

B- 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

30 

121 

B  + 

University 

B 

63 

108 

iis 

B- 

University 

B 

31 

120 

i28 

B  + 

University 

G 

64 

107 

101 

B  + 

University 

B 

32 

119 

130 

A- 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

65 

107 

C 

HS.  2yr.Mech. 

B 

33 

119 

124 

B 

University 

B 

66 

106 

ios 

A- 

University 

B 

Thif 

D   QdAI 

!TER 

FOCRI 

P    QlTASTER 

67 

106 

104 

c+ 

Gr.  HS.  Mar. 

G 

100 

97 

B- 

HS.  lyr.  Lab. 

B 

68 

106 

102 

C 

Gr.  HS.  Lab. 

B 

101 

97 

92 

c+ 

HS.  3yr.  Hm. 

G 

69 

105 

107 

B  + 

University 

B 

102 

97 

91 

c 

HS.  lyr.  Lab. 

B 

70 

105 

D 

HS.  lyr.  Bus. 

B 

103 

96 

99 

B 

Gr.HS.  Nurse 

G 

71 

104 

i24 

c+ 

University 

B 

104 

96 

c- 

HS.  lyr.  Mar. 

G 

72 

104 

107 

B 

Gr.  HS.  Mar. 

G 

105 

95 

iio 

B- 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

73 

104 

101 

c+ 

Gr.  HS.  Mar. 

G 

106 

95 

97 

B 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

74 

103 

121 

B 

University 

G 

107 

94 

115 

c+ 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

75 

103 

104 

B 

University 

G 

108 

94 

107 

c 

HS.2J^yr.Sew 

G 

76 

103 

101 

B 

HS.2>^yr.  Bus. 

G 

109 

94 

D 

HS.  lyr.  Lab. 

B 

77 

103 

97 

B 

University 

B 

110 

93 

i25 

B 

University 

B 

78 

102 

114 

B  + 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

111 

93 

112 

c+ 

University 

B 

79 

102 

112 

C 

Gr.  HS.  Mech. 

B 

112 

93 

101 

c+ 

University 

B 

80 

102 

C 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

113 

93 

95 

B 

University 

B 

81 

101 

ii7 

B 

University 

G 

114 

92 

c 

HS.  l^yr.  Hm. 

G 

82 

101 

B 

University 

G 

115 

91 

ios 

B 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

83 

100 

i22 

B  + 

University 

G 

116 

91 

97 

B- 

HS.  3yr.  Bus. 

G 

84 

100 

120 

D+ 

HS.  lyr.  Mar. 

G 

117 

91 

c- 

HS.  lyr.  Mar. 

G 

85 

100 

109 

D  + 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

118 

90 

i62 

B- 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

86 

100 

104 

B 

Gr.  HS.  Mar. 

G 

119 

90 

90 

C+ 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

87 

100 

101 

Inc. 

HS.  i^yr.  Lab. 

B 

120 

90 

Inc. 

HS.  Hyr.  Lab. 

B 

88 

100 

101 

B 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

G 

121 

90 

'89 

C- 

HS.  }4yT.  Mar. 

G 

89 

100 

101 

B- 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

122 

89 

97 

B- 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

90 

99 

108 

c+ 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

123 

88 

c+ 

HS.Voyr.Bus. 

B 

91 

99 

c+ 

HS.  lyr.  Hm. 

G 

124 

88 

'80 

D  + 

HS.2vr.Mar. 

G 

92 

98 

iis 

B- 

Gr.  HS.  Mech. 

B 

125 

87 

D+ 

HS.SJ^yr.Lab. 

B 

93 

98 

112 

B 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

126 

87 

'95 

D  + 

HS.  lyr.  Lab. 

B 

94 

98 

112 

D  + 

HS.  2yr.  Bus. 

B 

127 

85 

D  + 

HS.2yr.Carp. 

B 

95 

98 

110 

B 

Gr.HS.Bk-kp. 

G 

128 

85 

■96 

B 

HS.2yr.Mar. 

G 

96 

98 

100 

C- 

University 

B 

129 

83 

D 

HS.lJ-^yr.Hm. 

G 

97 

97 

104 

B- 

Normal  Sch. 

G 

130 

82 

C- 

HS.J^yr.Mar. 

G 

98 

97 

103 

C 

Gr.  HS.  Bus. 

B 

131 

79 

C  + 

HS.  J^yr.  Hm. 

G 

99 

97 

102 

B- 

University 

G 

Explanation  of  abbreviations  in  Table  XI.  "University,"  means  any  standard  College  or 
University.  Specific  institutions  named  in  Tables  XII  and  XIII.  "Gr.  HS.  Bus.",  means 
graduated  from  High  School  and  now  engaged  in  some  Trade  or  Commercial  occupation.  'Hh. 
lyr.  Bus.",  means  left  high  school  at  end  of  one  year  and  now  engaged  [in  Trade  or  Commer- 
cial occupation.  "Mar.",  means,  married.  "Hm.",  means  at  home,  occupation  not  known. 
"Mech.",  means  engaged  in  some  mechanical  occupation.  "HS.  lyr.  Lab.",  means,  left  high 
school  at  the  end  of  one  year  and  now  engaged  in  unskilled  labor. 


CASES  FOLLOWED   UP 


47 


quarter  is  B ;  that  of  the  girls  is  B  +.  In  the  second  quarter  the 
median  mark  of  the  boys  is  B — ;  that  of  the  girls  B.  Consid- 
ering all  the  cases,  we  find  the  median  high-school  mark  of  the 
boys  to  be  B  — ,  equivalent  to  80  percent,  and  that  of  the  girls 
to  be  B,  equivalent  to  85  percent.  Eleven  percent  of  the  boys 
and  seven  percent  of  the  girls  made  straight  A  or  A  —  records 
during  their  high-school  courses.  It  should  be  noted  that  all  of 
these  A  and  A —  records  were  made  by  pupils  in  the  top  half 
of  the  distribution,  and  that  75  percent  of  such  records  were 
made  by  those  in  the  top  quarter. 

2.    Discussion   of   Table  XII    (a). — Data   regarding   high- 
school  pupils  who  did  not  finish  their  high-school  education  are 


GENERAL,  SUMMARY  OE  TABLE  XI  BY  QUARTERS 

(Shozving  number  and  percent  of  cases  in  each  quarter  ivith- 
drazving  from  H.  S.,  graduating  from  H.  S.,  in  Iiigher 
institutions,  etc.) 


.,    , 

Median 
H.  S. 
Marks 

Number  of  Cases 

Quarter 

graduate 
from 
H.  S. 

from 
H. 

higher 
institu- 
tion 

Median 
I.Q. 

Boys 

Girls 

Total 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

Binet 

Group 

% 

Letter 

No. 

% 

No, 

10 
14 
19 
16 

59 

% 

17. 
23. 
33. 
27. 

100. 

1st,  (top).. 

2nd 

3rd 

4th 

0 

4 

6 

20 

00. 
13. 
20. 
67. 

3 

7 

16 

8 

9. 
20. 

47. 
24. 

30 

22 

11 

4 

45. 

33. 

16. 

6. 

125 
113 
100 
91 

128 
112 
107 
97 

87. 
85. 
80. 

78. 

B  + 

B 

B- 

c+ 

23 
19 
14 
16 

32. 
26. 
20. 
22. 

33 
33 
33 
32 

30 

100. 

34 

100. 

67 

100. 

106 

109 

84. 

B 

72 

100. 

131 

SUMMARY  OE   HIGH-SCHOOI.  MARKS    (TABLE  Xl)    BY  QUARTERS 


Boys 

Girls 

Marks 

Quarters 

Total 

Quarters 

Total 

Total 

1 

2 

3 

4 

1 

2 

3 

4 

A.  A- 

B  + 
B 

B- 

g+ 

C- 
D+.  D 

E,  Inc. 

5 
5 

7 

5 

1 
0 

0 
0 
0 

3 

2 

4 

4 
3 
3 

0 
0 
0 

0 

1 
2 

2 
2 
3 

1 
2 
1 

0 
0 
2 

4 
4 
1 

0 
4 

1 

8 
8 
15 

15 

10 

7 

1 
6 
2 

3 
3 
3 

1 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 

1 
6 
3 

2 
2 
0 

0 
0 
0 

0 
2 
9 

2 
3 
1 

0 
2 
0 

0 
0 

4 

1 
3 
2 

4 
2 
0 

4 
11 
19 

0 
8 
3 

4 
4 
0 

12 

19 
34 

21 
IS 
10 

10 
2 

Totals 

23 

19 

14 

16 

72 

10 

14 

19 

16 

59 

131 

Median  H.  S.  Mark,  Boys  "B-".  or  80%. 
Median  I.  Q.,  Boys,  Binet,  "109". 

Median  11.  S.  Mark,  Girls  •■U",  or  sa'/o. 
Median  I.  Q..  Girls,  Binet,  "10.3". 

48  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

.  assembled  in  Table  XII  (a).  In  the  summary  of  Table  XI  it 
appeared  that  87  percent  of  those  who  did  not  complete  their 
high-school  course  were  found  in  the  lower  half  of  the  ability 
distribution.  In  Table  XII  (a)  we  note  that  the  median  I.O.  of 
the  group  is  94,  with  the  range  of  the  middle  50  percent  from  88 
to  99.  If  an  intelligence  quotient  of  95  is  taken  as  the  lower 
limit  of  average  ability,  then  50  percent  of  the  cases  in  this  table 
have  less  than  average  ability. 

Achievement  in  high-school  subjects  is  likewise  found  to  be 
below  average.  On  a  percentile  basis  the  median  mark  for  the 
entire  131  cases  falls  at  84  percent,  which  is  nearer  a  B  than  a 
B — .  The  median  mark  for  the  30  cases  in  Table  XII  (a)  is  C — , 
or  70  percent — 14  points  below  the  average  for  the  entire  group. 
Thirty  percent  of  the  pupils  in  this  group  have  marks  of  D-f,  D, 
E,  or  Incomplete.  An  average  of  0+  implies  failure  in  about 
one-half  of  the  subjects  taken,  where  the  pupils  were  in  school 
more  than  one-half  of  a  school  year,  or  a  very  low  grade  of  work 
in  all  subjects  taken. 

The  relation  of  school  progress  and  intelligence  to  social 
status  will  be  taken  up  later,  but  it  should  be  observed  in  passing 
that  30  percent  of  the  pupils  reported  in  Table  XII  (a)  did  not 
give  their  fathers'  occupations,  and  that  63  percent  did  not  give 
either  vocational  ambitions  or  educational  plans,  although  they 
were  asked  to  give  all  these  data  at  the  time  the  mental  tests 
were  given. 

A  final  point  of  interest  in  this  table  is  the  length  of  time 
spent  in  high  school.  Six  dropped  out  at  the  end  of  the  first  half 
year,  and  five  of  these  had  I.O.'s  below  94.  An  additional  11 
dropped  out  by  the  end  of  the  first  year,  making  57  percent  of 
elimination  after  one  school  year.  Seven  more  were  eliminated 
by  the  end  of  the  second  year,  making  a  total  elimination  of 
80  percent  up  to  that  time.  The  remaining  six  pupils  secured 
2^,  3,  or  3 J^  years  of  high-school  training  before  dropping  out. 
Investigation  of  individual  cases  fails  to  reveal  any  pronounced 
relationship  between  the  economic  status  of  the  home  and  the 
elimination  of  the  pupil.    The  outstanding  causes  appear  to  be : 


CASES  FOLLOWED   UP 


49 


3  2 

Labor,  unsk. 
Salesman 
Ret.  H.  S. 
Auto  mech. 
Office  wk. 
Collector 
Labor,  unsk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Not  known 
Clerk,  paint  st. 
At  home 
Labor,  unsk. 
Labor,  unsk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Dressmaker 

X 

a 
3 

0 

Not  known 
Office  wk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Labor,  unsk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Office  wk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Labor,  unsk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Gardener 
Carj)enter 
Not  known 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Not  known 

Time  in 
H.  S. 

(years) 

'Hccfoc^es'H     ,H  1-H  M  c<5  i-ii-t  i-<  c<> 

-H 

Mi-I                         M  CO  (N  r-<  C^l  rt  rt 

Educational 

plan  in 

H.  S. 

a   .    .  c  ^  a  .^2  a  c!  c  ^  d  e  ^ 

>00>ai>a!,5^>>>dSSa 
tC^  *— 'bC4>5CaJ      .MbCbO.tCM. 

o  3  3  o  a  o  dii  o  o  o    .  o  o    . 

d 
> 

0 

a   .  a  G^  a  a  a      a  a  a  a    . 

03-—    0030*^*'*'           (U4)!13    43  — 
bC^   MM^   MM/SJOa   bCMtX)  bC^ 
O3OO --000000003 

z«Z5z;Sz:z;zzzzzJ5ca 

Vocational 
ambition 
in  H.  S. 

Farmer 
Not  given 
Priv.  Secy. 
Not  given 
Not  given 
Not  given 
Engineer,  El. 
Missionary 
Not  given 
Not  given 
Nurse 
Mechanic 
Not  given 
Not  given 
Dressmaker 

a 

3d 
0 

a      aa      aaa      aaaa 

C3           a)«3^43(l3(13,      130003 

.t  ti^.^  2  ^  ^  ^  0  S:.^.^.^  tC 

'bb  o'ScM'S'bc'S'S-C'Sc'bc'hc'Sb  0 

-tj  a*j*ji  43*i*j*i  2*j.tj«j*j  a 
o«oo^ooo§oooo« 

a 

JD    O 

O 

Gardener 
Not  given 
Clerical 
Carpenter 
Bus.  retired 
Contractor 
Not  given 
Engineer,  st. 
Not  given 
Paint  store 
(m)  Nurse 
Not  given 
Not  given 
Carpenter 
Sea  Captain 

a 

1 
St 

0 

Farmer 
Gardener 
Contractor 
Not  given 
Contractor 
Contractor 
Nt.  watchman 
Not  given 
Towboat,  Cap. 
Truckdriver 
Contractor 
Real  estate 
Not  given 
Not  given 

Average 
H.  S. 

marks 

+  4.             "•+  +  +  +      1    1 

Q 

\    \   i\ +++     ++      1 + 

.  a, 
eg 

1— 1  .-H  r-t       -O       ■  0  Oi       •  .-1  Oi  03       •       -O 

•l^      •      -O        0      •      -lO      •      •      •      • 
•OJ--00-00--O5---- 

1— (i-Hi-H0000005050>050>CiC5 

0 

cv^^^oooooor^»cioicico(N05 
a50303C5C50ooooOQOoooooooor>- 

a; 

pqmomowpQOOwocQCQOO 

m 

ooo«o«o«o««ooo 

cc  O 

rH  i-H  rl  i-H  1-H  1-H 

-a 
a 

b»0005O'-iC^C0Tt<iOC0t^00O3O 
r^.-irH(NCS(N(N(N<NIMW<N(NCO 

50  PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 

(a)  lack  of  mental  ability,  leading  to  poor  school  work ;  (b)  lack 
of  interest  in  school  tasks,  also  resulting  in  poor  school  work; 
(c)  social  (not  economic)  status  of  the  home.  As  to  this  last 
point,  it  was  found  that  85  percent  of  the  20  cases  where  the 
occupation  of  the  father  was  given  came  from  homes  where  the 
father's  occupation  ranked  III  or  IV  on  the  Barr  Scale.^  This 
scale  bases  occupational  ranking  on  the  ability  necessary  for  suc- 
cess, and  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Taussig  Scale,  on  economic 
return.  Hence  the  rank  given  according  to  the  Barr  Scale  is 
more  an  indication  of  social  than  of  economic  status. 

3.  Discussion  of  Table  XII  (b). — In  this  table  we  have  a 
presentation  of  data  regarding  thirty-four  pupils  who  gradu- 
ated from  high  school  but  who  did  not  continue  their  education 
beyond  that  point.  The  mental  ability  of  this  high-school- 
graduation-only  group  is  about  midway  between  that  of  the  left- 
school-to-go-to-work  group  and  that  of  the  entered-higher- 
institutions  group,  since  67  percent  of  the  cases  are  found  in  the 
second  and  third  quarters  of  the  distribution  in  Table  XI.  The 
median  I.Q.  of  this  group  is  100  according  to  the  Binet  Scale,  but 
according  to  the  group  test  the  median  is  107.  When  both  the 
individual  and  group  tests  are  considered,  only  four  cases  fall 
below  100  on  both  scales,  and  only  one  of  these  below  95  on 
both  scales.  This  would  indicate  that  only  those  of  average  abil- 
ity or  better  will  probably  complete  four  years  of  high  school. 
Compared  with  the  left-school-to-gp-to-work  group  they  rank 
six  points  higher  on  the  intelligence  (Binet)  tests — still  higher 
if  group  tests  are  considered — and  in  school  work  their  median 
mark  was  B — ,  80  percent  compared  with  C — ,  70  percent  for  the 
left-school  group. 

In  social  status  the  high-school  graduation  group  stands 
higher  than  the  left-school  group.  The  occupation  of  the  father 
is  given  in  29  of  the  34  cases;  and  the  occupational  rank  in  18, 
or  62  percent,  of  these  cases  is  III  or  IV,  compared  with  85  per- 
cent of  the  same  ranks  for  the  left-school  group. 


» See  Appendix  No.  III.,  p.  122. 


CASES  FOLLOWED   UP  51 

In  addition  to  the  fact  that  23  percent  more  of  the  high-school 
graduation  group  had  fathers  with  occupational  ranks  of  II  or 
better,  and  a  higher  average  intelligence  than  the  left-school 
group,  another  factor  may  have  had  some  influence  on  the  tend- 
ency to  complete  high  school,  i.  e.  the  cherishing  of  definite 
vocational  and  educational  plans.  Twenty-eight,  or  82  percent,  of 
the  high-school  graduation  group  entertained  vocational  ambi- 
tions, and  25  of  them,  or  73  percent,  had  educational  plans  re- 
quiring high-school  graduation.  On  the  other  hand,  63  percent 
of  the  left-school  group  had  no  such  plans,  or  at  least  were  not 
sufficiently  interested  to  indicate  what  they  might  be,  when  given 
an  opportunity  to  do  so.  That  there  is  a  direct  correlation  be- 
tween educational  plans  involving  graduation  from  high  school, 
and  tendency  to  complete  four  years  of  high-school  work  is  sup- 
ported by  the  studies  of  Vandenberg.*  The  inference  is  at  least 
plausible  that  if  all  high-school  pupils  were  given  guidance  in  the 
formulation  of  educational  and  vocational  plans,  more  of  those 
of  average  or  better  than  average  ability  would  remain  in  high 
school  until  the  four-year  course  was  completed,  while  those  of 
below  average  ability  would  at  least  be  helped  to  devote  their  time 
in  high  school  to  subjects  more  suited  to  their  needs  than  the 
ones  most  of  them  now  attempt  and  fail  in.  Lack  of  proper 
guidance  is  without  doubt  a  factor  too  often  entirely  overlooked 
in  discussions  of  elimination. 

4.  Discussion  of  Table  XIII  (a)  and  (h). — The  67  cases  of 
those  who  completed  high  school  and  then  continued  their  edu- 
cation in  higher  institutions  are  considered  in  Tables  XIII  (a) 
and  (b).  The  47  now  attending  Stanford  University  are  in- 
cluded in  (a),  and  the  20  attending  other  institutions  in  (b). 
The  Stanford  group  was  treated  separately  because  it  selects  both 
men  and  women  students  on  the  basis  of  scholarship,  and  because 
records  indicating  success  in  university  work  were  available  for 
the  Stanford  cases. 


*  Injrlis,  Alexander,  J.    Principles  of  secondary  education.    Boston,  Hough- 
ton Mifflin,  1918.    p.  137. 


52 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


dm 

OlM 

03'-' 

"  S 

Clerical  wk. 
Office  wk. 
Office  wk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Art  shop 
Clerical  wk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Office  wk. 
Bank  clerk 
Labor,  unsk. 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Housewife  (mar.) 
Electrician 
Telephone  op. 
Stenographer 

J4 

o 

Housewife  (mar.) 
Drug  clerk 
Gas  Serv.  Sta. 
Salesman 
Bk.  keeper 
Clerical  wk. 
Truck  driver 
Salesman 
Nurse 
Bank  clerk 
Office  wk. 
Office  wk. 
Stenographer 
P.  0.  clerk 
Salesman 
Mec.  Draughtmn 

Educational 

plan  in 

H.  S. 

.ti -<■  .-1^ -«■ —■  §.-S-5.t2  §.-S  S'f'      §—•-: 

.&   to--    CO   oo-^.^   to»& +3.-  •*.i'^   tH  -tJ   M   to 
fl   3   C  3   3   O   a   3  fl   O   d   O  «J   O   O  3   3 

P  m  D  w  CQ  ;z;  t>  CQ  p  ^  P  ^  §  ^  Iz;  m  m 

a 

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Pharmacy  Sch. 
Normal 
University 
Not  given 
Bus.  Col. 
Theol.  Sem. 
Not  given 
University 
Bus.  Col. 
Not  given 
University 
Normal 
Not  given 
University 
Not  given 
University 

Vocational 
ambition 
in  H.  S. 

bb 

a  4J     -k^  a  a  fl         a 
§.S2     ^  "d  §      ^  § 
«  bb  ti  ti  bb-2; -3  bo's  .^„  .  .^,  .,  «J .^^  bi)  bb 
feaaaa-f..i^aj-+iO^(2i^+^ac 

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■rn5i  •-  bO  -2  .  flj  bC  .  2  bC  .•-  . 
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t.  g^  o  «-c  o  «^-^  «  «  «  «  o  « 

a 

CO    O 

^  o 
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Nt.  watchman 
Salesman 
Carpenter 
Not  given 
Not  given 
Carpenter 
Contractor 
Carpenter 
Mine  Supt. 
Real  estate 
Butcher 
Real  estate 
Auto  dealer 
Farmer 
Restaurant 
Not  given 
Engineer 

OI 

o 

o3 

Real  estate 

Butcher 

Carpenter 

City  Treas. 

Engineer 

Farmer 

Not  given 

Painter 

Ship-joiner 

Cabinet-mkr. 

Mail  carrier 

Furniture 

Teamster 

Contractor 

Not  given 

Cabinet-mkr. 

Average 
H.  S. 
marks 

+ 1 ! + 1 ++++ 1 +++              1 

mpq<3m<Joomwmooo«oo<i 

+ 

Q 

\+          1               1  +      1  +  1 

cqmfflo«mmo«mfqo«mom 

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COOOCOO>O^OOt^      .  (M  rj< —1  l^  <N      •  ■* 
CO  CO  CO  IM  (N  C^  O --I  O     -OOOOtH     •  .-i 
I— 1>— (t-Hi-Hi— It— IT-Ii-Hi— 1       •>— (i-Hr-l.— Ii— 1       -i— 1 

i-H 

Tt<.-H,-<000(NiCfOOt^OlOCOlMOt^ 
OOOOi-H— i-^OOSOS—h-hOOOJOS 

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CASES  FOLLOWED  UP 


53 


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+++'+++ I ++    I  I  I  +  I     I  + 


T}^r}^T}^T}^Tl^TJ^TJ^cc■^•>*T}^TJ^T}<^:lTJ^TJ<TJ^■*T}<Tr'!f 


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.  £?S  a  >  >  >ci^>-3  c  — —  >  ^■■i  =?  >  ^ 


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cq«mM«cm«oo«mm«o«!2H«aao 


54 


FSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


w 

< 


Univer- 
sity 
marks 

++ 

mm 

+ 

o 

+  !    1               1      ++     +        +1       111  + 

o<umQmomumoouQoomouomooo 

«      a 

Gradua 

from 

H.  S.  1 

■*•<* 

rf* 

T}HrJtT}<'«J<Tj4^Tj<T}tlJ<Tj<T*f*Tf<T}<Tj<TjtTt<'^J<-<J<->#'<!t<'<#rJ< 

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plan  in 

H.  S. 

S  c 

-M    *^  _*J  _+J  _*i   .*3   .+J  _+i  _+i   .»J    -fcJ   -ki  _-jJ   -kj    -fJ    -fcS     g  ^     g   •♦J    -W     g  _+i 

'S 'm '^ 'm 'ro 'ot 'S 'S'm'S 'm ';/3   cc'cq   co   cd   >   O  >   co   cc   >   co 

Vocational 
ambition 
in  H.  S. 

a  a 

>    > 

o  o 

a; 

a 

l«^«^ll«lll|«^fe|.|lill|lls 

a 

jn  O 

*>i  '-3 

^^ 
So. 

o 

go 

"3 
o 

-►J 

3 

Univ.  Prof. 

Minister 

Univ.  Prof. 

Banker 

Hdw.  Merchant 

Hotel  owner 

Lawyer 

Min.  Eng. 

Teacher  H.  S. 

Stock  farm 

Hdw.  Merchant 

Butcher 

Physician 

Creamery 

Creamery 

State  Officer 

Merchant 

Wool  broker 

Not  given 

Univ.  Prof. 

Merchant 

Wool  broker 

Lawyer 

Average 
H.  S. 
marks 

1  + 

m 

4-I+     +     +II           I+II+         +     + 

o<;mmmmmm<:mm<jmmm<5mmmmmom 

•00 
•IM 

•  1—1 

I— 1 

0"5N      ■N.IOCO      •      •  lO  CO  fO  O  »C  lO  GO  N- 1~-      -CQiOr-iiO 
r^T-HO     -OiMO     •     •  »-i  O -H  CM —1 -H  O  O  OS     -(NCMOOl 

^H  rH  l-H       •  1— 1  i-H  1-1       •       .  ,— 1  i-<  ^H  1— 1  ^  rH  i-O-H               •  1— 1  1-H  l-C 

05 

OiOOOOOOCOkO»OiO-*C^(N^OOOO«OiOMr;OfOCOi:0 

_(^H,-l,-<,-lrH^Hi— 11— (rHl— (1— I^Hr-l0000000500> 

1 

mo 

m 

mmmoomommOfflOmommmmoommm 

6 

«3 

(MCO 

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io«Dt^ooo50'H(Ncci"*":iot^oooiO^CMfO'*u:(;ci>. 
(MC^c^csoieocscoeococceocoMco'^  ■*'*'■*  ■*■*"*■* 

CASES  FOLLOWED  UP 


55 


s 
o 

u 


w 

< 


ten 

.57 

Col.  of  Pac. 
Annapolis 
U.  of  Calif. 
U.  of  Calif. 
S.  J.  Normal 
Davis  Farm  Sch. 
U.  of  Calif. 
U.  of  Calif. 
S.  J.  Normal 
S.  J.  Normal 

"tc 
eS 

"o 
> 
'5 

S.  J.  Jr.  Col. 
Hopkins  Art  Sc. 
U.  of  Calif. 
Mills  College 
Col.  of  Pac. 
U.  of  Calif. 
S.  J.  Normal 
U.  of  Calif. 
Col.  of.  Pac. 

Graduated 

from 
H.  S.  in: 

tzi 

cj--------; 

■* 

•4<-<tc«<'«'<<-«<^'^^ 

1 

1 

Educational 

plan  in 

H.  S. 

University 
Nav.  Academy 
University 
University 
Not  given 
Agri.  Col. 
University 
Agri.  Col. 
Cons.  Music 
University 

c 
> 

o 

University 
Tech.  Sch. 
University 
Cons.  Music 
Med.  Sch. 
Not  given 
Normal 

Univ.  or  Norm. 
Sch.  of  Eng. 

53 

Vocational 
ambition 
in  H.  S. 

Scientist 
Naval  Oflf. 
Lawyer 
Civ.  Eng. 
Not  given 
Sci.  Farmer 
Civ.  Eng. 
Farmer 
Mus.  Teacher 
Nurse 

a 
> 
'So 

o 

Musician 
Civ.  Eng. 
Priv.  Secy. 
Mus.  Teacher 
Tr.  Nurse 
Not  given 
Teacher 
Teacher 
Mech.  Eng. 

1 
a 

JD    O 

o 

Lawyer 
Real  estate 
Civ.  Eng. 
Salesman 
Salesman 
Minister 
Creamery 
Wh'sl.  Mer. 
Physician 
Cement  Cont. 

c 
> 

o 
55 

Salesman 
Transfer  Bus. 
Salesman  (Hdw.) 
Not  given 
Minister 
Not  given 
Orchardist 
Banker 
Merchant 

Average 

H.  S. 

marks 

+  11          +         + 

M 

+  +                  11  + 

J2 

Group 

COCDi-iOOOSCSCOMiO 

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"I 

56  FSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

(a)  Thirty-three  of  the  Stanford  cases  were  boys  and  14 
were  girls.  The  median  I.O.  of  the  boys  was  121 ;  of  the  girls, 
116;  of  both  together,  119.  The  median  high-school  mark  of 
the  Stanford  boys  was  B,  85  percent;  of  the  girls,  B-j-,  88  per- 
cent, of  both,  B+j  88  percent.  The  median  university  mark  of 
the  boys  was  C+,  78  percent;  of  the  girls,  C+,  78  percent;  of 
both  together,  the  same.  In  explanation  of  the  relatively  low 
university  marks,  compared  with  the  high-school  marks,  it  may 
be  said  that  most  of  the  Stanford  cases  are  just  completing  their 
first  year  of  university  work  and  have  had  many  new  adjustments 
to  make.  The  three  boys  making  A —  records  in  the  university 
are  of  the  first  group  tested  in  1916-17,  Two  of  them  completed 
high  school  in  3^  years  and  are  now  juniors.  The  other  one 
has  completed  his  sophomore  year. 

(b)  Eleven  of  the  20  pupils  attending  other  higher  institu- 
tions than  Stanford  were  boys  and  nine  girls.  The  boys  attained 
a  median  I.O.  of  115;  the  girls,  103;  both,  109.  The  median 
high-school  mark  of  the  boys  was  B — ,  80  percent;  of  the  girls, 
B,  85  percent;  of  both,  B — ,  80  percent.  Combining  the  two 
sections,  we  have  44  boys  with  a  median  I.O.  of  1 19  and  a  median 
high-school  mark  of  B,  85  percent;  and  23  girls  with  a  median 
I.Q.  of  112  and  a  high-school  mark  of  B,  85  percent.  The 
median  I.O.  of  the  entire  group  of  67  boys  and  girls  in  higher 
institutions  was  118,  and  the  median  high-school  mark,  B,  or 
85  percent. 

The  influence  of  social  status  on  tendency  to  go  on  to  higher 
institutions  is  much  more  evident  in  the  case  of  the  group  under 
discussion  than  in  relation  to  either  of  the  other  groups.  We 
have  noted  above  that  only  15  percent  of  the  left-high-school 
group  and  38  percent  of  the  high-school-graduation  group  had 
fathers  whose  occupations  ranked  I  or  II.  Forty-four  of  the 
students  now  in  Stanford  gave  fathers'  occupation,  and  42  of 
these,  or  95  percent,  ranked  I  or  II.  Seventeen  of  those  in  other 
institutions  gave  fathers'  occupation,  and  12  of  these,  or  70  per- 
cent, ranked  I  or  II.  Sixty-one  of  the  combined  groups  gave 
fathers'  occupations,  and  54,  or  89  percent,  had  occupations 


CASES  FOLLOWED  UP 


57 


ranking  I  or  11.  The  difference  between  the  first  two  groups 
and  the  third,  in  the  matter  of  social  status,  is  so  striking  as  to 
leave  little  doubt  concerning  the  part  played  by  that  factor  in  the 
selection  of  those  who  go  on  to  higher  institutions.  In  other 
words,  when  we  find  that  eight  out  of  ten  of  those  who  left  school 
before  completing  the  course  and  six  out  of  ten  of  those  who 
just  graduated  from  high  school  come  from  a  social  status  rep- 
resented by  fathers'  occupational  rank  of  III  or  IV,  while  ap- 
proximately nine  out  of  ten  of  those  continuing  their  education 

SUMMARY  OF  TABLES   XII    (a)    AND    (b)    AND  XIII    (a)    AND    (b), 

WITH  REFERENCE  TO  INTEEEIGENCE  OF  PUPIES  AND  RANK 

OF  fathers'  occupations  on  the  BARR  SCALE 

FOR  MEASURING  VOCATIONAL,  STATUS 


I.  Q.  OP  Pupils 

Rank  of  Fathers'  Occupation 
ON  Barr  Scale 

Total 

Median 
Rank 

V 

IV 

III 

II 

I 

125  or  over 

115-124 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 
0 
0 
1 
2 

0 
7 
9 
14 
9 

10 
8 
9 

11 

7 

7 

10 
3 
2 
0 

18 
25 
21 

28 
18 

II 

105-114 

II 

95-104 

III 

79-94 

III 

Totals 

Percents 

0 
0.0 

4 
3.6 

39 
35.4 

45 
41.0 

22 
20.0 

110 
100  0 

II 

beyond  high  school  come  from  a  social  status  represented  by 
fathers'  occupational  rank  of  I  or  II,  we  are  warranted  in  ac- 
cording social  status  a  prominent  place  among  the  factors  which 
determine  the  probable  educational  future  of  a  given  high-school 
pupil. 

The  tendency,  frequently  noted  by  investigators,  for  a  posi- 
tive correlation  to  be  found  between  general  intelligence  and 
social  status,  is  discoverable  in  the  data  presented  in  the  three 
tables  already  discussed.  This  will  be  evident  from  the  follow- 
ing summary : 

None  of  the  110  giving  fathers'  occupation  has  a  father  with 
an  occupational  ranking  of  V.  Only  3.6  percent  have  occupa- 
tions ranking  IV.     Sixty-four  of  the  pupils  have  I.Q.'s  ranging 


58 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


FIGURE    3.       COMPARISONS    OF   GROUPS    "noT    COMPLETING    HIGH 

SCHOOE,"  "completing  HIGH  SCHOOL  ONLY,"  AND 

"going  to   HIGHER  INSTITUTIONS" 


(a)  Mental  Levels. 

kedian  l,q,,   of  group. 


(b)  Social  Statue. 
Per  cent,  whose  fathers' 
occupations  ranked  Z  or  ZZ<< 


Did  not   Did  cora- 
flnlsh    plete 
E.  8.     H.  S. 


Entered  Did  not  Did  com-  Entered 

higher  finish  plete    higher 

InstittJ-  H.  S.  H.  S.    Instltu* 
tlon  tion 


(c)  Vocational  AmMtiona 
Per  cent  of  cases  '  having 
Vocatlond.!  ani'bltlons. 


(d)  Educational  Plans. 
Per  cent,  of  cases  having 
Educational  ^lans 


Did  not 
finleh 
H.  8. 


Did  con- 
plete 
H.  8. 


Entered 
higher 
Institu- 
tion 


Did  not  Did  com-  Entered 
finish   plete    higher 
H.  8.    R.  S.    institu- 
tion 


from  105  to  142,  comprising  the  groups,  "better  than  average," 
"superior,"  and  "very  superior."  The  fathers'  occupation  in  47 
of  these  cases,  or  75  percent,  ranks  I  or  11.  There  are  46  cases 
with  I.Q.'s  ranging  from  79  to  104,  embracing  the  average  and 
below  average  groups  in  ability.    Twenty  of  these  have  fathers 


CASES  FOLLOTTED  UP  59 

with  occupational  ranking  of  I  and  II,  making  43  percent  for  the 
"average"  and  "below  average"  I.Q.  groups,  compared  with  75 
percent  for  the  three  upper  groups.  While  the  range  of  fathers' 
occupations  is  too  limited  to  yield  a  high  coefficient  of  correlation 
between  social  status  and  the  intelligence  of  children,  these  data 
at  least  support  the  conclusion  that  where  there  is  a  combination 
of  high  intelligence  and  superior  social  status  great  impetus  is 
given  to  the  "go-on-to-college"  idea. 

When  we  compare  the  vocational  ambitions  of  the  in-higher- 
institutions  group  with  those  of  the  graduation-from-high-school 
group,  we  find  82  percent  of  the  latter  indicating  vocational  pref- 
erences, and  78  percent  of  the  former.  But  when  it  comes  to 
signifying  definite  educational  plans,  91  percent  of  the  college 
group  and  only  73  percent  of  the  high-school  group  outlined  plans 
for  education  beyond  high  school.  Again,  of  those  among  the 
college  group  who  told  of  their  educational  plans,  89  percent  are 
now  carrying  out  the  identical  plans  mentioned  by  them  when 
they  were  first-year  high-school  students.  This  is  a  still  further 
confirmation  of  the  previously  suggested  conclusion  that  definite 
plans,  in  mind  at  the  beginning  of  a  high-school  course,  tend  to 
stimulate  those  expressing  them  to  continue  in  training  until  the 
plans  are  consummated.  When  to  definiteness  of  vocational  and 
educational  plans  are  added  the  further  factors  of  better  than 
average  ability  and  superior  social  status  the  chances  become 
eight  or  nine  to  one  that  the  plans  and  ambitions  will  be  carried 
out  successfully, 

5.  The  value  of  tzvo  tnental  scales. — A  word  should  be  added 
regarding  the  advantage  of  having  at  least  two  tests  of  mental 
ability  before  assuming  that  anything  approaching  an  accurate 
indication  of  the  individual's  mental  ability  has  been  discovered. 
In  105  of  the  131  cases  discussed  in  this  chapter,  both  the  Binet 
and  a  group  test  were  given.  A  glance  at  Table  XI,  where  all 
the  cases  are  assembled  according  to  rank  on  the  Binet  Scale, 
will  indicate  a  very  marked  agreement  between  the  two  tests; 
but  a  sufficient  amount  of  disagreement  will  also  be  found  to 
suggest  caution  in  basing  judgments  on  a  single  test.     Fifteen 


60  PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AfW  GUIDANCE 

points  on  the  Alpha  Scale,  according  to  the  Kohs-Proctor  norms, 
constitute  the  equivalent  of  a  mental-age  year.  Using  this  stand- 
ard of  variation  on  the  105  cases  in  Table  XI,  where  both  tests 
were  applied,  we  find  that  in  only  13  cases,  or  12  percent  of  the 
total,  was  there  a  difference  greater  than  the  equivalent  of  one 
mental-age  year. 

One  or  two  illustrations  will  suffice  to  show  the  advantage 
of  the  two  tests  from  a  guidance  point  of  view.  Cases  110,  111, 
112  and  113,  Table  XI,  all  tested  I.Q.,  93  on  the  Binet  Scale,  and 
an  assumption  might  have  seemed  valid  that  they  did  not  rep- 
resent promising  university  material.  On  the  group  test,  how- 
ever, they  earned  I.Q.'s  of  125,  112,  101,  and  95,  respectively. 
All  of  them  came  from  homes  where  the  rank  of  the  fathers' 
occupation  was  I  or  II,  and  they  are  all  now  in  college — three 
of  them  in  Stanford  and  one  in  the  College  of  the  Pacific,  at 
San  Jose,  California.  On  the  other  hand,  where  both  tests  agree 
either  on  the  high  or  the  low  I.O.  basis,  the  school  work  and 
educational  destiny  revealed  by  the  sixth  year  follow-up  usually 
correspond.  Cases  2  to  11,  inclusive,  all  stood  high  on  both  tests, 
and  all  of  them  are  now  found  in  the  university.  Cases  121, 
124,  126,  and  128,  all  made  low  scores  on  both  tests.  None  of 
them  completed  more  than  two  years  of  high  school.  In  any 
event,  whether  the  tests  agree  or  not,  the  test  results  should  be 
considered  as  tentative,  not  final,  and  the  counselor's  attitude 
should  constantly  be  that  of  open-mindedness.  Test  results  must 
themselves  be  thoroughly  tested  against  other  valid  criteria. 

Summary  and  ConcIvUsions 

1.  The  discussion  covers  cases  of  131  high-school  pupils, 
tested  with  Binet  and  group  scales  in  1916-17  and  1917-18,  and 
followed  up  until  June  1,  1923. 

2.  The  influence  of  a  university  community  is  evident  in  the 
fact  that  77  percent  of  the  131  graduated  from  high  school  and 
66  percent  of  the  high-school  graduates  went  on  to  higher  insti- 
tutions, compared  with  35  percent  graduating  and  42  percent  of 


CASES  FOLLOWED  UP  61 

high-school  graduates  going  to  higher  institutions  in  the  country 
at  large. 

3.  Arrangement  of  all  cases  in  rank  order,  Table  XI,  brings 
out  the  fact  that  87  percent  of  the  cases  in  the  did-not-coniplete- 
high-school  group  were  in  the  lower  half  of  the  distribution; 
that  67  percent  of  those  who  did  not  go  beyond  high  school  were 
found  in  the  second  and  third  quarter;  and  that  78  percent  of 
those  going  to  higher  institutions  were  found  in  the  top  half. 

4.  The  median  I.Q.  of  those  who  did  not  complete  high 
school,  Table  XII  (a),  was  found  to  be  94.  The  median  high- 
school  mark  was  14  points  below  the  median  for  the  entire  group 
of  131.  Neither  educational  nor  vocational  plans  were  indicated 
by  63  percent  of  this  group.  Elimination  of  80  percent  had  taken 
place  by  the  end  of  the  second  high-school  year.  Lack  of  mental 
ability,  lack  of  interest,  and  social  status  were  the  most  potent 
causes  of  elimination. 

5.  The  group  completing  high  school  only,  Table  XII  (b), 
had  a  median  I.Q.  of  100  and  a  median  school  mark  of  80  per- 
cent. Occupations  of  38  percent  of  the  fathers  ranked  I  or  II. 
Vocational  ambitions  were  expressed  by  82  percent  and  educa- 
tional plans  by  73  percent  of  the  cases.  Average  ability  and  bet- 
ter than  average  social  status  were  factors  in  ensuring  high-school 
graduation. 

6.  The  67  cases  continuing  education  in  higher  institutions, 
Table  XIII,  were  found  to  have  a  median  I.Q.  of  118  and  an 
average  high-school  mark  of  85  percent.  The  occupations  of 
fathers  ranked  I  and  II  in  89  percent  of  the  cases.  Positive  cor- 
relation was  also  found  between  the  father's  occupation  and  the 
intelligence  of  the  child.  Average  or  better  than  average  ability 
and  superior  social  status  appear  to  be  the  most  vital  factors  in 
determining  continuation  of  education  beyond  high  school. 

7.  Marked  agreement  between  Binet  and  Group  I.Q.'s  was 
found.  In  92  of  105  cases  where  both  tests  were  applied — 88  per- 
cent— there  was  agreement  within  one  mental-age  year.  Cases 
where  one  test  indicated  a  low  level  of  ability  and  the  other  an 
average  or  higher  level  are  found  doing  college  work  success- 


62  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

fully.  Where  both  tests  agree,  either  high  or  low,  subsequent 
educational  progress  tends  to  bear  out  the  diagnostic  implica- 
tions of  the  mental  tests.  In  any  event,  tests  should  be  measured 
against  other  valid  criteria. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  USE  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  IN  THE  VOCA- 
TIONAL GUIDANCE  OF  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 

The  use  of  psychological  tests  as  a  basis  for  the  prediction 
of  probable  school  success,  and  in  the  educational  guidance  of 
high-school  pupils  has  been  discussed  in  Chapters  II,  III  and  IV. 
The  use  of  such  tests  in  the  vocational  guidance  of  high-school 
pupils  will  be  discussed  in  this  chapter. 

The  Employment  Manager  and  the  Vocational 
counseeor 

The  application  of  psychological  tests  to  the  selection  of  men 
for  particular  jobs  is  well  along  in  the  experimental  stage.^  The 
employment  manager  has  demonstrated  the  value  of  such  tests 
when  used  in  the  selection  of  employees.  If  the  tests  are  carefully 
devised  to  discover  whether  the  applicants  have  certain  essen- 
tial mental  qualifications  for  the  kind  of  work  they  will  be  called 
upon  to  perform,  and  if  final  selection  is  made  from  the  few 
who  make  high  scores  in  the  tests,  the  results  are  likely  to  be 
satisfactory  to  the  employer.  When  in  addition  to  specific  mental 
tests,  appropriate  trade  or  performance  tests  arc  given,  the  em- 
ployment manager  or  personnel  expert  can  select  from  the  highest 
25  percent  of  applicants  with  reasonable  assurance  that  they  will 
make  good  at  the  tasks  assigned  to  them.  These  tests  tend  ef- 
fectively to  sift  out  the  undesirables,  to  reduce  the  amount  of 
labor  turnover,  and  to  secure  for  the  employer  a  higher  grade 
of  employees. 

The  person  who  selects  men  for  a  particular  occupation  needs 
only  to  know  the  qualifications  for  success  in  that  occupation. 
He  can  plan  his  tests  with  a  view  to  eliminating  all  those  who 
do  not  measure  up  to  the  established,  standard.  If  only  five  out 
of  one  hundred  applicants  are  selected  and  they  all  prove  to  be 


*Link,  H.  C.    Employment  psychology.    New  York:  Macmillan  Co.,  1919. 

63 


64  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

adapted  to  their  work  the  tests  by  which  they  were  selected  are 
counted  as  satisfactory.  The  ninety-five  rejected  applicants  do 
not  concern  the  employment  manager. 

The  vocational  counselor,  however,  has  to  think  of  the  ninety- 
five  as  well  as  the  five.  His  field  is  a  broad  one.  He  is  called 
upon  to  advise  people  possessing  every  variety  of  fitness  to  enter 
every  possible  kind  of  occupation.  It  would  be  manifestly  im- 
possible for  the  vocational  counselor  to  give  adequate  trade  or 
psychological  tests  corresponding  to  the  infinite  variety  of  occu- 
pations open  to  American  youths. 

It  is  true  that  he  must  avail  himself  of  every  possible  scientific 
aid  in  arriving  at  his  conclusions.  His  preparation  will  neces- 
sarily include  a  wide  knowledge  of  occupations,  and  special  train- 
ing in  the  discovery  of  occupational  aptitudes.  But  he  should 
never  persuade  himself  or  lead  others  to  believe  that  he  is  able 
to  chart  unerringly  their  abilities  and  give  them  an  absolute  voca- 
tional classification.  The  successful  counselor  will  understand 
at  the  outset  that  he  is  a  guide  and  not  a  dictator,  and  that  he 
is  dealing  with  probabilities  and  not  with  certainties.^ 

OccuPATioNAi.  Levels  oe  Inteeugence 

Among  the  factors  which  the  counselor  must  take  into  ac- 
count in  estimating  the  probability  of  a  person's  success  in  an 
occupation,  the  intelligence  level  is  one  of  the  most  important. 
If  we  accept  Stern's  definition  of  intelligence  as  a  working  basis 
for  the  discussion  of  the  subject,  there  can  be  no  question  of  the 
vital  connection  between  intelligence  and  vocational  success. 
Stern  says  :^  "Intelligence  is  a  general  capacity  of  an  individual 
consciously  to  adjust  his  thinking  to  new  requirements :  it  is  gen- 
eral mental  adaptability  to  new  problems  and  conditions  of  life." 
Given  a  high  degree  "of  mental  adaptability  to  new  problems  and 
conditions  of  life"  coupled  with  energy,  persistence,  and  reliabil- 


' Kitson,  H.  D.  "Vocational  guidance  and  the  theory  of  probability," 
School  Eeview,  28:143-50,  February,  1920. 

*  Stern,  William.  The  psychological  methods  of  testing  intelligence.  Bal- 
timore, Warwick  &  York,  1914,  p.  3. 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  65 

ity,  it  would  be  reasonable  to  assume  that  one's  range  of  possil)le 
vocational  success  would  be  wide.  Conversely,  given  a  low  level 
of  intelligence,  even  though  the  other  qualities  mentioned  are 
present,  one's  range  of  possible  vocational  success  would  be 
greatly  restricted. 

We  have  already  gone  far  enough  in  the  development  of  in- 
telligence tests  to  justify  the  statement  that  individual  levels  of 
intelligence  can  be  discovered  with  approximate  accuracy.  The 
next  step,  so  far  as  vocational  guidance  is  concerned,  is  to  dis- 
cover whether  or  not  there  are  occupational  intelligence  levels,  i.e. 
levels  of  intelligence  more  or  less  characteristic  of  the  workers  in 
a  given  occupation.  That  there  are  discoverable  differences  in 
the  intelligence  levels  of  workers  in  the  various  occupations  is 
suggested  by  the  findings  of  the  Division  of  Psychologv',  Sanitary 
Corps,  United  States  Army.* 

Table  XIV  is  derived  from  the  chart  found  on  page  23  of  the 
pamphlet.  Army  Mental  Tests.  The  median  ratings  of  this  chart 
are  changed  from  the  letters  "A,"  "B,"  etc.,  to  the  raw  scores  on 
the  Alpha  Army  Scale  (which  range  from  0  to  212).  For  each 
of  the  43  occupations  selected  from  the  72  shown  on  the  chart, 
the  median  score  is  given,  as  well  as  the  range  of  the  middle  50 
percent  of  the  scores.  The  top  line  of  the  table  would  then  read  : 
laborers,  median  score,  35 ;  range  of  scores  made  by  the  middle 
50  percent,  21-63.  It  should  then  be  understood  that  25  percent 
of  the  laborers  scored  less  than  21  points,  while  the  top  25  percent 
scored  over  63  points  out  of  a  possible  212  points.  The  chart 
was  made  up  from  the  returns  of  approximately  36,500  men,  and 
the  data  were  taken  from  the  soldiers'  qualification  cards. 

Figure  4  illustrates  graphically  the  spread  of  the  middle  50 
percent  of  the  scores  on  Army  Alpha  by  occupational  groups. 
There  is  considerable  overlapping.  The  unskilled,  semi-skilled, 
and  skilled  labor  groups  differ  but  little  as  to  the  beginning  of 
the  middle  50  percent  of  scores  (21,  23,  and  26  respectively). 
But  there  is  a  distinct  difference  in  the  upper  limits,  which  are 


*  Army  mental  tests,  methods,  typical  results,  cmd  practical  applications. 
Washington:    Government  Printing  Office,  November,  1918. 


66  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 

63,  70,  and  95  respectively.  The  beginning  of  the  middle  50  per- 
cent of  the  business  and  clerical  group  is  nearly  as  high  as  the 
upper  limit  for  the  unskilled  labor  group,  and  the  beginning  of 
the  middle  50  percent  of  the  professional  group  is  higher  than 
the  upper  limit  of  the  skilled  labor  group. 

If  the  scores  of  the  entire  number  of  men  examined  by  the 
Division  of  Psychology,  Sanitary  Corps,  of  the  United  States 
Army  could  be  grouped  by  occupations  the  final  results  of  com- 
pilation would  probably  show  some  deviations  from  the  medians 
and  middle  50  percents  given  in  Table  XIV.  But  the  general 
tendencies  therein  indicated  would  no  doubt  be  confirmed.  There 
would  be  found  more  or  less  clearly  defined  levels  of  intelligence 
in  the  various  occupations,  corresponding  roughly  to  the  amount 
of  intelligence  necessary  to  succeed  in  them.  There  would  be 
much  overlapping  and  within  each  occupation  a  wide  range  of  in- 
telligence would  be  found.  But  in  the  occupational  groups  above 
unskilled  labor  one  would  expect  to  find  critical  scores^  or  points 
below  which  occupational  success  could  not  be  expected."  In  the 
professional  group,  for  example,  one  would  expect  to  find  the 
greatest  number  of  occupational  failures  among  the  lowest  25 
percent,  i.e.,  among  those  who  made  scores  ranging  from  0  to  98. 

Application  to  Guidance  of  High-School  Pupils 

How  a  knowledge  of  individual  and  occupational  intelligence 
levels  may  be  utilized  in  the  vocational  guidance  of  high-school 
pupils  can  be  illustrated  by  the  data  presented  in  Table  XV.  In 
this  table  930  pupils  in  eight  high  schools  are  distributed  accord- 
ing to  vocational  ambition  and  scores  made  on  Army  Scale  Alpha 
and  Examinations  a  and  b.  The  different  occupational  choices 
have  been  divided  into  five  groups :  agriculture,  mechanical  and 
industrial,  business  and  clerical,  unclassified,"  and  professional. 

•  Thurstone,  L.  L.  * '  Mental  tests  for  college  entrance, ' '  Journnl  of  Edu- 
cational Psychology,  10:129-41,  March,  1919. 

•  Cowdery,  K.  M.  "A  statistical  study  of  intelligence  as  a  factor  in  voca- 
tional success,"  Journal  of  Delinquency,  4:227,  November,  1919. 

'  Most  of  the  occupations  belonging  to  this  group  are  called  ' '  pro- 
fessional" by  the  United  States  Census  Bureau. 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 


67 


TABI.E  XIV.      OCCUPATIONAI,  INTELLIGENCE  LEVELS,  BASED  ON 
ARMY  PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  OF  36,500  MEN.     ALPHA  SCALE 


Occupations 


LABOiERS  (Unskilled) 

Seki-skilled  Labor 

Cobblers 

Teamsters 

Farm  workers 

Barbers 

Horse-shoers 

Skilled  Labor 

R.  R.  shop-mechanics . . . 

Bricklayers 

Cooks 

Bakers 

Painters 

Blacksmiths 

Bridge-carpenters 

General  carpenters 

Butchers 

Locomotive  enginemen. . . 

Machinists 

R.  R.  conductors 

Plumbers 

Tool-makers 

Auto-repairmen 

Chauffeurs 

Tool-room-experts 

Policemen-detectives .  . . . 

Auto-assemblers 

Ship-carpenters 

Business  and  Clerical 

Telephone  operators 

Concrete  const'n  foremen 

Photographer 

General  electrician 

Telegraphers 

R.  R.  clerks 

General  clerks 

Mechanical  engineers. . . . 

Bookkeepers 

Dental  officers 

Mechanical  draughtsmen . 

Stenographers 

Accountants 

Professional 

Civil  engineers 

Medical  officers 

Army  chaplains 

Engineer  officers 


Median  Score 


35 

39 

41 
42 

43 
44 

45 
48 
49 
53 
53 
54 
55 
57 
58 
59 
61 
62 
62 
63 
63 
63 
64 
64 
65 
66 

70 

75 

77 

82 

84 

92 

96 

98 

99 

106 

112 

115 

117 

125 
130 
150 
157 


Range  of  Middle  SO  I'ercent 


21  to  63 

23  to  67 

23  to  68 

24  to  70 

22  to  70 

25  to  70 

26  to  83 

23  to  81 

28  to  79 
35  to  83 
31  to  79 

29  to  83 

27  to  84 
33  to  85 
33  to  85 
33  to  82 
33  to  86 

40  to  84 
38  to  87 

41  to  88 
41  to  89 
38  to  90 

43  to  88 

44  to  89 
44  to  97 
49  to  95 

58  to  99 
48  to  116 
52  to  104 

58  to  110 

59  to  107 
66  to  116 
74  to  123 
63  to  133 

78  to  126 
84  to  130 

79  to  134 
93  to  142 

101  to  145 

98  to  147 
101  to  165 
109  to  173 
134  to  184 


68 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


The  professional  group  covers  50.5  percent  of  the  choices,  470 
cases;  unclassified,  11.2  percent,  104  cases;  business  and  clerical, 

Approximate  occupational  intelligence  levels: 

1.  Unskilled  labor  Median     35,  Middle  50%  21  to 

2.  Semi-skilled 

3.  Skilled  labor 

4.  Business  and  clerical 

5.  Professional 


Unskilled      Semi-skilled 
Labor  Labor 


Business  and     Professions 
Clerical 


FIGURE  4.      SHOWING  SPREAD  OF   MIDDLE   50  PERCENT  OF  CASES, 
TABLE  XIV,  BY  OCCUPATIONS 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 


69 


TABI,E  XV.     VOCATIONAL  AMBITIONS  OF  930  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 

DISTRIBUTED  ACCORDING  TO  INTELLIGENCE  RATINGS 

ON  ARMY  SCALE  ALPHA  AND  GROUP 

EXAMINATIONS  a  AND  b 


Letter  rating    - .  ■  - 

C— 

C 

C  + 

B 

A 

Alpha 

25-44 

45-59 

60-74 

75-S9 

90-104 

105-119 

120-134 

135-212 

Tot«l 

J  1 

25^9 

SOH57 

68-84 

85-99 

100-119 

120-137 

138-154 

155-237 

Choice  of  Occupation 

AcitlCULTURZ 

2 

1 

5 

4 

1 

7 

10 

12 

41 

1 

Forestry 

1 

1 

2 

4     46 

Mechanical  and  In 
dustrial 

4 

4 

2 
3 
1 

2 

2 

S 

8 

3 

21 

1 

1 
1 

1 

Milliner 

1 

1 

1 
1 

2 

Aviator 

1 

2     34 

Business  and  Cler- 
ical 

1 
10 
6 

1 
6 
5 

2 

3 

1 

5 

2 

22 
5 

9 
3 

7 
1 
1 

62 

Bxisiness  manager . 

23 
1 

Clerk  (sales) 

1 

1 

1 

2 
41 

1 
1 
1 
1 
38 

3 

2 

Real  estate 

1 

1 
33 

1 
25 

3 

4 

Stenographer 

2 

2 

11 

24 

176     276 

Unclassified 

2 

1 
3 
10 

1 
3 
5 

4 

2 
6 

1 

6 
3 

14 

2 

2 

28 

1 

1 

1 

10 

1 

1 

1 
4 

7 

1 
11 

1 
8 

1 
6 

5 

46 

1 

1 

1 

1 
1 

2 

Writer 

2     104 

Professional 

3 

3 

1 
3 
2 

i2 

9 

2 
1 

10 

47 

1 
7 
2 
3 
44 
5 
7 
2 

10 
ii 

2 

1 
2 

3 

3 

1 
2 
30 
3 
2 
1 

14 

Dentist 

1 

11 

5 

2 

12 

20 

2 
2 

140 

10 

Law 

20 

5 

1 

1 
23 

4 
44 

11 

68 

35 

Teaching 

8 

I2i     470 

ToUU 

2 

9 

40 

103 

185 

215 

189 

187 

930 

70 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


29.7  percent,  276  cases ;   mechanical  and  industrial,  3.6  percent, 
34  cases ;   and  agricultural,  5.0  percent,  46  cases. 

The  need  for  vocational  guidance  of  high-school  pupils  is 
brought  out  very  clearly  by  the  way  in  which  the  choices  are  con- 


o 

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o 

< 

o 
> 

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to 

w 


o 


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^ 


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t~i.  c3 


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^ 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  71 

centrated  in  the  professional,  semi-professional  (i.e.  unclassified), 
and  business  and  clerical  divisions  of  Table  XV.  These  include 
31  different  occupations,  popularly  known  as  "white  collar  jobs," 
and  comprise  91.2  percent  of  the  930  choices.  Agricultural, 
mechanical  and  industrial  occupations  include  11  different  em- 
ployments, and  8.8  percent  of  the  choices.    See  Figure  5. 

Vocational  opportunities,  as  shown  by  the  United  States  cen- 
sus reports,^  are  just  about  the  reverse  of  the  distribution  of 
high-school  pupils'  occupational  choices.  Agriculture  and  the 
mechanical  and  industrial  arts  engage  the  energies  of  61.1  per- 
cent of  tlie  gainful  workers  in  the  United  States,  and  only  8.8 
percent  of  the  high-school  pupils  had  ambitions  looking  toward 
these  fields.  Business  and  clerical  employments  enlist  only  14.1 
percent  of  the  gainful  workers  of  the  country ;  and  yet  29.7  per- 
cent of  the  high-school  pupils  plan  to  enter  these  fields  of  effort. 
In  the  United  States  census  reports  practically  all  of  the  occupa- 
tions designated  in  Table  XV  as  unclassified  are  included  under 
the  caption  "professional  service."  In  spite  of  this  liberal  inter- 
pretation of  the  term  "professional"  only  4.4  percent  of  the  gain- 
ful workers  are  found  to  be  engaged  in  professional  service  in 
this  country.  Nevertheless  the  professional  and  unclassified  divi- 
sions of  Table  XV  include  574  choices,  or  61.7  percent  of  the 
total  number. 

Although  it  is  a  fact  that  the  high  school  represents  a  rather 
highly  selected  group  of  young  people  from  whose  ranks  the 
clerical,  business,  and  professional  occupations  are  very  largely 
recruited,  it  is  apparent  that  by  no  means  91.2  percent  of  high- 
school  pupils  will  ultimately  find  their  way  into  these  occupational 
fields.'  Furthermore  for  their  own  best  good  and  the  l>est  good 
of  the  nation  a  great  many  of  them  should  be  directed  toward 
the  agricultural,  mechanical,  and  industrial  fields. 

The  question  may  be  raised  as  to  the  use  that  a  vocational 
counselor  might  make  of  facts  regarding  the  intelligence  of  high- 

*  Thirteenth  census  of  the  United  States,  1910.     Volume  4:    poimhtiion: 
occupation  statistics.    Washington:    Government  Printing  Office,  1914,  p.  40. 
'See  Table  XIX  (a)  and  (b),  p.  82. 


72  FSYCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

school  pupils  such  as  are  shown  in  Table  XV.  Assuming  that 
occupational  levels  approximating  those  found  in  Table  XIV 
have  been  established,  the  counselor  could  proceed  on  the  theory 
that  those  falling  within  the  lowest  quarter  of  intelligence  rat- 
ings, i.  e.,  who  make  scores  lower  than  the  beginning  score  for  the 
middle  50  percent  of  a  given  occupation,  would  probably  have 
small  chances  of  success  as  workers  in  that  occupation. 

Take  the  professional  group.  The  intelligence-score  limits  of 
the  middle  50  percent  as  shown  in  Table  XIV  are  from  98  to  184 
(Alpha).  There  are  fifty  cases  in  the  professional  group,  Table 
XV,  who  made  an  intelligence  score  of  less  than  90  points  on  the 
Alpha  Scale.  The  counselor  could  safely  consider  the  cases  fall- 
ing in  this  quarter  of  the  professional  group  as  doubtful.  If 
teachers'  estimates  of  intelligence  and  school  marks  confirmed 
the  findings  of  the  mental  tests,  he  would  be  justified  in  making 
an  efifort  to  direct  the  thoughts  of  those  boys  and  girls  toward 
some  other  life  career. 

Specific  occupations  treated  in  the  manner  just  outlined  for 
the  entire  professional  group  would  yield  the  following  percents 
of  doubtful  cases:  draughtsmen,  23.8  percent;  bookkeepers, 
21  percent;  stenographers,  22.1  percent;  dentists,  18.1  percent; 
engineers,  24.3  percent;  lawyers,  15  percent;  doctors,  13.9  per- 
cent;  and  teachers,  33.6  percent. 

If  by  making  use  of  intelligence  ratings  of  individual  pupils 
in  connection  with  the  intelligence  levels  of  the  occupations  which 
they  are  ambitious  to  enter  the  vocational  counselor  can  give 
them  more  accurate  advice  as  to  the  life  career  in  which  they  are 
most  apt  to  succeed  he  should  by  all  means  make  use  of  such 
ratings.  But  it  will  probably  be  pointed  out  that  intelligence  rat- 
ings are  not  in  themselves  sufficiently  reliable  to  justify  their 
use  in  vocational  guidance.  To  this  objection  it  may  be  replied 
that  the  high-school  counselor  has  at  hand  means  of  verifying 
the  results  of  the  mental  tests.  He  is  able  to  secure  the  esti- 
mates of  teachers  and  others  who  know  the  pupils  and  he  has 
access  to  the  record  of  their  success  in  school  tasks.  Agreement 
between  teachers'  estimates  of  intelligence  and  mental  tests,  or 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 


73 


O 

O 
t-i 
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)-) 
H 
H 

M 

O 
H 

O 

;? 

c 
Pi 
o 

u 
o 

< 

en 


W 
u 

o 

w 

o 
1-1 
< 

o 

^  o 
hJ  > 

sg 

u  <: 

K    X 
O   w 

K 
o 

O 

5? 
O 

pq 

(^ 

H 
1/2 


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^ 

lO  r~  00  O  O 
r^  r^  »"• 
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■O  t^   00  o   o 

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lO 

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M 
O 

n 
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I.Q. 

Above 
Average 

o 

vO    ^    lO    O    O 
ro    lO   fS 

fs 

m 

^O    00   CN   o   o     1 
1 

I.Q. 
Average 

o 

>o  •<*•  <^  o  o 

CS    00    LO 

CM 

o 

pq 

CS    l^    00    O    O 
PO   «s   •^ 

I.Q. 
Below 

Average 

O 

00   •"*«   Ov   O   O 

•* 

« 

•<i<  »o  t^  o  o 

o 

1- 

H 
> 
< 

< 

6 
I.Q. 

Above 
Average 

O 

<^  •*■«*<  o  o 

^ 

n 

to   >0    ro   O   O 

t 

5 

I.Q. 

Average 

o 

fO    ■«*'    O    O    O 

pa 

00  o  >o  o  o 

5 

4 
I.Q. 
Below 

Average 

o 

Tj<     ■5}<     ^     O     O 

ta 

i^  ■*  f^  o  o 

•'J' 

N 

O 

u 
< 

s 

w 

a 

I.Q. 

Above 
Average 

O 

ro   t^   O   O   O 

O 

ta 

t^   -.f    lO   O   O 

2 
I.Q. 

Average 

O 

Tl<  00  »o  o  o 

^ 

n 

ro    0>    -*    O    O 

^   cs   ^ 

lO 

I.Q. 

Below 
Average 

o 

O    —    O    O   O 

ro 

K 

r-  f~   >0   O   O 

g 

Rank  or 

Vocational 
Ambition 

1 

74  I'SYCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

agreement  between  school  marks  and  mental  tests,  would  greatly 
strengthen  the  presumption  that  the  tests  had  succeeded  in  dis- 
covering the  pupil's  mental  level. 

Discovery  of  Agreement  Between  Mental  Tests,  Schooi, 
Marks,  and  Vocationai.  Ambition 

The  cases  of  the  high-school  pupils  whose  mental  ratings  and 
vocational  ambitions  are  set  forth  in  Table  XV  are  redistributed 
in  Table  XVI  in  accordance  with  standing  in  school  subjects, 
intelligence  tests,  and  rank  of  vocational  ambition.  For  the 
purposes  of  the  three-way  distribution,  vocational  ambitions  are 
ranked  as  follows:  Rank  I:  higher  professional  and  executive 
positions;  Rank  II:  business,  semi-professional,  higher  clerical 
positions;  Rank  III:  general  clerical,  skilled  labor,  etc.;  Rank 
IV:   semi-skilled  labor;   RankV:   unskilled  labor. 

Mental  age  equivalents  for  the  Army  Scale  ratings  were 
worked  out  by  Dr.  Samuel  C.  Kohs  and  the  writer,^ "^  and  from 
them  intelligence  quotients  (I.Q.'s)  were  computed.  The  mental 
level  of  a  child  is  more  nearly  represented  by  the  I.Q.  than  by 
the  raw  scores  on  an  absolute  point  scale  because  the  latter  take 
no  account  of  the  chronological  age. 

Sex  differences  in  rank  of  vocational  ambition  are  indicated 
in  column  10.  There  are  189  boys,  or  45.1  percent  of  the  total 
number  of  boys,  but  only  86  girls,  or  16.8  percent  of  the  girls, 
who  chose  vocations  of  the  first  rank.  The  vocational  ambitions 
of  33.4  percent  of  the  boys  and  46.3  percent  of  the  girls  are  rep- 
resented by  Rank  II,  and  those  of  21.5  percent  of  the  boys  and 
36.9  percent  of  the  girls  by  Rank  III.  There  were  none  of  the 
930  who  chose  vocations  of  less  than  Rank  III.  The  most  nu- 
merous choices  of  the  boys  were  for  the  engineering  profession 
and  of  the  girls  for  stenography  and  teaching. 

How  those  whose  ambitions  come  in  the  different  ranks  would 
probably  measure  up  in  mental  ability  to  the  demands  of  the 
occupations  chosen  can  be  estimated  by  reference  to  the  nine  pos- 


'  See  Appendix,  p.  117. 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  75 

sible  combinations  of  I.Q.  and  school  marks.  Entries  in  column  1 
show  those  who  have  I.O.'s  and  school  marks  both  below  aver- 
age. There  are  51  pupils  in  this  group.  Seven  of  them  have 
chosen  occupations  of  Rank  I,  and  18  of  Rank  II.  Since  school 
marks  confirm  indications  of  mental  tests  as  to  low  mental  level 
in  these  cases  the  success  of  these  pupils  in  occupations  of 
Ranks  I  or  II  would  be  open  to  question. 

In  column  7  there  are  57  cases,  16  boys  and  41  girls,  having 
marks  above  average  and  I.Q.'s  below  average.  Here  is  an  indi- 
cation that  the  tests  did  not  register  the  full  ability  of  the  pupils, 
or  that  they  possess  qualities  of  persistence  and  other  attributes 
tending  to  supplement  intelligence  as  factors  in  successful 
school  work. 

Columns  2  and  3  indicate  that  there  are  many  pupils  whose 
intelligence  is  average  or  above  average  but  who  do  poor  school 
work.  Teachers  are  apt  to  rate  such  pupils  low  in  intelligence. 
The  mental  tests  give  the  counselor  an  insight  into  their  true 
ability  and  enable  him  to  employ  methods  of  waking  them  up 
through  the  discovery  of  the  right  life-career  motive. 

The  cases  entered  in  columns  6  or  9  where  the  I.O.'s  are 
above  average  and  school  success  is  average  or  above  average 
can  be  considered  as  satisfactory,  so  far  as  intelligence  is  con- 
cerned, for  the  occupations  chosen.  However,  the  counselor  can 
be  of  great  service  to  the  pupils  in  these  groups  through  his  abil- 
ity to  give  information  as  to  the  demand  for  workers,  the  oppor- 
tunities for  advancement,  the  qualifications  as  to  health,  tempera- 
ment, training,  etc.,  expected  of  those  who  enter  the  occupations 
selected  for  consideration. 

There  is  no  purpose  here  to  suggest  tliat  a  counselor  should 
always  advise  those  who  have  superior  ability  to  enter  high  rank- 
ing occupations.  If  a  bright  lx)y  or  girl  would  be  more  contented 
in  an  occupation  ranking  low  on  the  rating  scale,  there  is  no  occa- 
tion  to  urge  him  or  her  to  select  another  simply  because  it  ranks 
higher  in  popular  estimation.  There  is  room  for  superior  intelli- 
gence in  every  occupation,  and  it  would  l)e  well  for  the  country  if 
young  people  of  superior  ability  were  encouraged  to  follow  agri- 


76  FSTCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

cultural,  mechanical,  and  industrial  pursuits,  in  order  that  they 
might  become  leaders  therein.  The  professions  are  overcrowded, 
but  there  is  always  room  for  young  people  with  ideas  and  energy 
in  the  food  producing  and  industrially  creative  occupations. 

Summary  and  Conci^usions 

1.  The  use  of  psychological  and  trade  tests  in  the  selection 
of  employees  can  be  more  easily  shown  to  be  effective  than  can 
the  use  of  such  tests  in  vocational  guidance.  The  employment 
manager  can  "play  safe"  by  rejecting  all  but  the  most  promising 
applicants,  while  the  vocational  counselor  must  needs  endeavor 
to  give  sound  advice  to  all  comers. 

2.  Minute  charting  of  abilities  by  means  of  psychological 
and  trade  tests  is  not  practicable  at  the  present  time  for  the  pub- 
lic school  vocational  counselor.  There  are  far  too  many  differ- 
ent occupations  and  the  specific  abilities  of  individual  pupils  are 
much  too  various  to  permit  of  accurate  "pigeon-holing"  accord- 
ing to  manual,  conceptual,  and  other  types.  Likewise  a  given 
combination  of  abilities  might  mean  successful  participation  in 
any  one  of  a  wide  range  of  occupations. 

3.  The  discovery  of  the  levels  of  intelligence  of  individuals 
and  of  occupational  groups  may  prove  to  be  of  great  assistance 
to  the  high-school  counselor.  The  data  on  army  mental  tests, 
arranged  in  Table  XIV,  indicate  that  there  are  rather  definitely 
marked  occupational  levels  of  intelligence.  The  norms  already 
suggested  would  probably  be  confirmed  by  a  compilation  of  all 
available  data. 

4.  Application  of  the  Army  Intelligence  Scale  to  930  high- 
school  pupils  and  the  distribution  of  the  cases  according  to  intel- 
ligence rating  and  vocational  ambitions  is  shown  in  Table  XV. 
Illustration  is  also  given  of  the  way  in  which  this  knowledge 
might  be  applied  to  the  vocational  guidance  of  the  group  tested. 

5.  Need  of  vocational  guidance  of  high-school  pupils  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  concentration  of  choices  in  the  pro- 
fessional, business,  and  clerical  occupations  is  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  opportunities  in  those  lines  as  shown  by  the  United 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  77 

States  census.  The  demands  for  workers  in  agricultural,  indus- 
trial, and  mechanical  pursuits  should  be  emphasized  by  the 
counselor. 

6.  The  need  for  supplementary  information  to  verify  the 
findings  of  the  intelligence  tests  is  shown  in  Table  XVI.  The 
930  cases  are  distributed  according  to  sex,  school  marks,  voca- 
tional ambition,  and  intelligence.  Where  intelligence  rating  and 
school  marks  agree  the  presumption  is  that  the  intelligence  level 
was  approximated  by  the  mental  test.  Where  they  do  not  agree 
it  is  a  warning  to  make  further  inquiry  into  the  matter. 

7.  The  employment  of  psychological  tests  as  an  aid  in  voca- 
tional guidance  is  in  the  early  experimental  stage,  but  sufficient 
progress  has  been  made  to  justify  their  use  in  a  negative  way,  i.  e., 
as  a  means  of  discovering  to  the  counselor  the  kinds  of  occupa- 
tions that  a  given  high-school  pupil  would  probably  better  avoid. 
They  are  useful  also  as  a  means  of  satisfying  a  counselor  that 
a  given  pupil  has  the  mental  ability  to  engage  in  the  occupation 
which  he  has  chosen,  providing  other  necessary  factors  condi- 
tioning success  are  present.  In  any  case  the  counselor  will  do 
well  to  remember  that  he  is  dealing  with  probabilities  and  not 
with  certainties.  The  mental  tests,  if  conservatively  employed, 
will  increase  the  probability  that  the  counselor  will  give  really 
helpful  advice. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RELATION  OF  GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE  TO  THE 
PERSISTENCE  OF  EDUCATIONAL  AND  VOCA- 
TIONAL PLANS  OF  HIGH-SCHOOL  PUPILS 

The  question  is  frequently  raised  as  to  the  value  of  data 
concerning  the  present  ambitions  of  high-school  pupils.  The 
claim  is  made  that  the  answers  to  questions  regarding  vocational 
and  educational  plans  are  unreliable  either  because  the  pupil 
has  no  definite  ideas  regarding  his  life  work  or  because  he  does 
not  take  the  question  seriously.  It  is  therefore  of  genuine  in- 
terest to  all  who  attempt  the  advisement  of  youth  to  know 
whether  and  to  what  extent  the  vocational  ambitions  and  edu- 
cational plans  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  high  school  represent 
significant  and  abiding  life  interests. 

This  chapter  will  treat  the  data  gathered  in  a  fourth-year 
follow-up  of  the  groups  of  high-school  pupils  whose  vocational 
ambitions,  educational  plans,  school  success,  and  general  intelli- 
gence scores  on  the  group  scales,  Army  Alpha  and  Examinations 
a  and  h,  were  secured  during  the  academic  year  1917-18.  The 
results  of  the  first  check-up,  made  two  years  after  the  original 
data  were  obtained,  are  set  forth  in  Chapters  II,  III,  and  V  of 
this  monograph.  In  the  chapters  just  mentioned  mental  tests 
were  discussed  from  the  viewpoint  of  their  adaptability  in  the 
educational  and  vocational  guidance  of  high-school  pupils.  The 
fourth  year  follow-up  presents  the  situation  as  it  appeared  in  the 
year  1921-22,  and  furnishes  the  basis  for  tentative  deductions  in 
regard  to  the  persistence  of  educational  and  vocational  plans  an- 
nounced by  high-school  pupils. 

Only  those  pupils  who  attended  the  Palo  Alto,  San  Mateo, 
Redwood  City,  Mountain  View,  and  Santa  Clara  high  schools 
are  considered  in  the  study  presented  in  this  chapter.  It  was 
found  to  be  difficult  to  secure  information  concerning  cases  from 
the  other  high  schools  which  were  included  in  the  original  inves- 
tigation.    An  additional  item  in  favor  of  confining  the  fourth- 

78 


PEBSISTENCE   OF  PLANS  79 

year  check-up  to  the  five  high  schools  we  have  named  was  the 
fact  that  there  had  not  been  a  change  in  administrative  head  in 
any  of  these  high  schools  during  the  four-year  period. 

In  these  high  schools  771  pupils  had  originally  filled  out  the 
questionnaires  in  full  and  had  taken  the  mental  tests.  Some 
88  of  these  could  not  be  located,  leaving  683  concerning  whom 
reliable  information  could  be  had.  The  683  cases  were  dis- 
tributed as  follows:  (a)  in  occupations,  272;  (b)  in  educa- 
tional institutions  beyond  the  high  school,  290;  (c)  still  in  the 
high  school,  33;  (d)  married,  47;  (e)  just  graduated,  plans 
indefinite,  27;  (f)  prevented  from  carrying  out  plans  by  ill 
health,  10;    (g)  died,  4. 

The  mental  age  and  I.Q.  values  hereafter  referred  to  are 
those  found  in  the  original  examination.  No  new  tests  were 
given.  The  Army  Alpha  scale  was  the  group  test  employed,  and 
the  mental-age  equivalents  were  derived  from  the  Kohs-Proctor 
mental-age  norms  for  the  Alpha  scale.^ 

Persistence  of  Vocationai.  Plans  of  Cases 
Now  IN  Occupations 

Table  XVII  gives  the  distribution  of  the  272  cases  found  to  be 
engaged  in  occupations,  according  to  their  intelligence  levels  and 
also  as  to  the  relation  of  the  present  occupation  to  the  vocational 
preference  expressed  four  years  ago.  Sex  differences  are  indi- 
cated under  the  captions  "B"  and  "G."  Wherever  in  this  and 
in  subsequent  tables  the  rank  of  vocations  is  referred  to  it  is  to 
be  understood  that  occupations  are  ranked  from  I  to  V  as  fol- 
lows: Rank  I,  higher  professional  and  executive  positions; 
Rank  II,  semi-professional,  managerial,  and  higher  commercial 
positions;  Rank  III,  general  clerical  and  commercial  positions, 
skilled  labor,  etc. ;  Rank  IV,  semi-skilled  labor ;  Rank  V,  un- 
skilled labor.^ 

When  the  data  of  Table  XVII  are  summarized  and  expressed 
in  the  form  of  percents,  the  meaning  of  the  table  becomes  more 


*  See  Appendix,  p.  117. 

•  See  Barr  Scale,  Appendix  III,  p.  122. 


80 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


TABI,^  XVII.      RELATION  OF  OCCUPATION  IN    I92I-22  TO 
PREFERENCE  IN    I917-18 


General  Intelligence — I. 

(Alpha) 

Q. 

1 

"■qtals 

80- 

-99 

100-119 

120  or  over 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

Both 

Vocation  same  as  pref- 
erence stated  in 
1917-18 

3 

1 

0 

39 

28 

7 

0 

31 

14 

4 
0 

46 

34 

5 

0 

31 

3 

1 

0 

15 

5 

1 
2 
2 

20 

6 

0 

100 

67 

13 

2 

64 

87 

Different  vocation  but 
of  same  rank  as 
original  preference. .  . 

Higher  rank 

19 
2 

Lower  rank 

164 

Totals 

43 

66 

64 

70 

19 

10 

126 

146 

272 

evident.  Forty  percent  of  these  former  high-school  pupils  are 
engaged  in  occupations  of  the  same  or  higher  rank  with  refer- 
ence to  their  original  vocational  preference.  Correspondingly, 
60  percent  are  in  occupations  of  lower  rank  than  that  of  the 
preference  expressed  in  1917-18.  The  sex  differences  are  quite 
marked,  especially  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  intelli- 
gence levels.  For  example,  among  the  boys,  9  percent  of  those 
with  I.Q.'s  below  100  and  30  percent  of  those  with  I.Q.'s  above 
100  are  engaged  in  occupations  equal  to  or  above  their  prefer- 
ence. On  the  other  hand,  among  the  girls,  those  above  average 
intelligence  have  been  no  more  successful  than  those  of  less 
than  average  intelligence  in  attaining  their  objectives.  The  per- 
cents  are  51  for  the  former  and  53  for  the  latter.  In  other 
words,  intelligence  appears  to  have  played  a  greater  part  in  the 
case  of  the  boys  than  it  did  in  the  case  of  the  girls. 

The  sex  differences  brought  out  in  the  preceding  paragraph 
are  accounted  for  in  part  by  the  fact  that  in  the  original  survey 
the  vocational  ambitions  of  the  boys  ranked  higher  than  those  of 
the  girls.  This  point  will  be  further  discussed  in  connection  with 
Table  XVIII. 


PBBSISTENCE  OF  PLANS 


81 


As  has  already  been  shown  in  connection  with  Table  XMI,  the 
percent  of  girls  with  I.O.'s  below  loo  who  were  in  occupations 
of  their  choice  or  in  occupations  of  higher  rank  was  53,  while 
the  percent  of  boys  in  the  same  situation  was  only  9.     In  Table 

TABi^E  XVIII  (a)  The  original  vocationai,  preferences 

AS  EXPRESSED  IN    19 1 7-18 


Rank  op 

General 

Intelligence — I 

Q. 

' 

Occupations 

S'J- 

-99 

100-119 

120  or  over 

Preferued 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

Both 

I 

13 

2 

22 

4 

13 

0 

48 

6 

54 

II 

11 

23 

20 

35 

3 

5 

34 

G3 

97 

III 

19 

41 

22 

31 

2 

5 

43 

77 

120 

IV 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1 

0 

1 

0 

1 

V 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

Totals 

43 

G6 

64 

70 

19 

10 

12G 

140 

272 

(b)    OCCUPATIONS  ENGAGED  IN  FOUR  YEARS  LATER   (192I-22) 


Rank  op 

General  Intelligence — I.  Q. 

Totals 

80-99 

100-119 

120  or  over 

Occupation 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

Both 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

0 

2 

14 

15 

12 

0 

3 

50 

13 

0 

0 

4 

22 

30 

8 

0 

5 

50 

15 

0 

0 
3 
4 
11 
1 

0 
3 

7 
0 
0 

0 
9 

40 
56 
21 

0 

11 

107 

28 
0 

0 

20 

147 

84 

21 

Totals 

43 

66 

64 

70 

19 

10 

126 

146 

272 

XIX  (a),  however,  it  appears  that  in  1917-18  56  percent  of  the 
boys  and  38  percent  of  the  girls  with  I.Q.'s  from  80-99  ^^^^  ^'oca- 
tional  preferences  that  ranked  above  III,  while  in  1921-22,  63 
percent  of  the  boys  and  20  percent  of  the  girls  in  that  intelligence 
group,  Table  XIX  (b),  were  in  occupations  ranking  IV  and  V. 
In  1917-18  the  median  vocational  preference  of  the  boys  was 


82 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


Rank  II ;  of  the  girls  Rank  III.    In  1921-22,  the  median  occupa- 
tions of  the  boys  was  Rank  IV;  of  the  girls  Rank  III. 

When  we  consider  the  group  with  I.Q.'s  of  100  or  over,  we 
note  that  whereas  about  70  percent  of  the  boys  and  55  percent 
of  the  girls  had  ambitions  ranking  I  and  II,  none  of  either  sex 
was  found  in  occupations  ranking  I,  and  only  9  percent  in  occu- 
pations ranking  II.     In  1917-18,  none  of  the  girls  and  only  1.2 


TABI.E  XIX.     PERCENTAGE  SUMMARY  OF  TABEE  XVIII.      (a)   ORIGI- 
NAE  VOCATIONAE  PREFERENCES  EXPRESSED  IN  I917-18 




General  Intelligence — I.  Q. 

Tr^rr  i  T  0 

Rank  op 

Occupations 

Preferred 

80-99 

100  or  over 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

I 

30.5 

3.0 

16.0 

42.1 

5.0 

24.0 

38.0 

4.0 

20.0 

II 

25.5 

35.0 

31.0 

27.7 

50.0 

39.0 

27.2 

43.0 

35.6 

III 

44.0 

62.0 

53.0 

29.0 

45.0 

37.0 

34.0 

53.0 

44.0 

IV 

0 

0 

0 

1.2 

0 

0 

0.8 

0 

0.4 

V 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

(b)    OCCUPATIONS  ENGAGED   IN   WHEN   CHECKED   UP   IN    I92I-22 


General  Intelligence — I.  Q. 

Rank  of 

Occupation  now 

Engaged  in 

80-99 

100  or  over 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

I 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

II 

4.5 

4.5 

4.5 

8.4 

10.0 

9.0 

7.0 

8.0 

7.0 

III 

32.5 

75.5 

58.8 

31.4 

71.0 

51.0 

32.0 

73.0 

54.0 

IV 

35.0 

20.0 

25.7 

49.2 

19.0 

34.0 

44.0 

19.0 

31.0 

V 

28.0 

0 

11.0 

11.0 

0 

6.0 

17.0 

0 

8.0 

percent  of  the  boys  had  ambitions  ranking  IV  or  V,  but  in 
1921-22,  we  find  about  half  the  boys  in  occupations  ranking  IV, 
and  1 1  percent  in  occupations  ranking  V.  We  find  none  of  the 
girls  of  this  I.Q.  group  in  occupations  ranking  V,  but  19  per- 
cent of  them  are  found  in  occupations  ranking  IV. 


FEBSISTENCE  OF  PLANS  83 

The  influence  of  intelligence  on  persistence  in  vocational  plans 
is  apparently  discoverable,  but  at  this  stage  of  the  investigation 
it  has  not  yet  become  pronounced.  Our  data  permit  a  few  per- 
tinent statements.  According  to  section  (b)  of  Table  XIX,  9 
percent  of  those  of  better  than  average  intelligence  are  in  occu- 
pations ranking  II,  while  only  4.5  percent  of  those  of  less  than 
average  intelligence  are  in  occupations  of  that  rank.  Again,  28 
percent  of  the  boys  with  below  average  intelligence  are  in  occu- 
pations ranking  V,  while  only  11  percent  of  the  boys  with  above 
average  intelligence  are  in  this  lowest  class  of  occupations.  In 
the  case  of  the  boys,  it  has  already  been  stated  in  connection 
with  Table  XVII  that  those  of  better  than  average  intelligence 
showed  greater  persistence  in  the  occupations  of  their  original 
choice.  The  figures  were  30  percent  for  those  with  I.Q.'s  of  100 
or  higher  and  9  percent  for  those  with  I.Q.'s  below  100. 

A  check-up  made  four  years  after  the  original  survey  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  reveal  pronounced  correlations  between 
intelligence  and  persistence  in  vocational  plans,  but  it  is  signifi- 
cant that  there  seems  to  be  a  tendency  for  those  of  below  aver- 
age ability  to  gravitate  toward  occupations  ranking  IV  and  V. 
A  similar  check-up,  made  four  years  hence,  will  probably  reveal 
a  much  more  pronounced  tendency  for  those  of  above  average 
ability  to  be  found  in  the  higher  ranking  occupations  than  is  now 
the  case.  With  reference  especially  to  boys,  it  is  well  known  that 
they  have  to  start  at  the  bottom  in  a  given  occupation  or  that 
they  may  even  have  to  take  some  temporary  job  which  has  no 
relation  to  their  vocational  preference. 

The  data  here  presented  at  least  lends  support  to  the  suppo- 
sition that  those  of  better  than  average  ability  will  tend  gradu- 
ally to  approximate  their  vocational  ambitions,  while  those  with 
below  average  ability  will  be  more  apt  to  find  their  ultimate  occu- 
pations at  levels  below  their  high-school  plans  for  a  life  career. 
Two  concrete  cases  will  illustrate  this  point.  A  certain  boy 
whose  I.Q.  was  92  expressed  vocational  preference,  "Doctor  of 
Medicine."  He  is  now  driving  a  delivery  wagon.  Another 
whose  ambition  was  that  of  "Electrical  Engineer,"  had  an  I.Q. 


84 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


of  89.     He  left  the  high  school  because  of  failure  in  his  work, 
and  is  now  working  at  odd  jobs  as  a  day  laborer. 

Illustrating  the  tendency  of  those  with  above  average  ability 
to  climb  to  higher  occupational  levels,  are  the  two  cases  in 
Table  XVII  of  girls  who  are  following  vocations  of  higher  rank 
than  their  vocational  preference.  One,  I.  O.  129,  whose  ambi- 
tion was  to  be  a  stenographer,  is  now  a  teacher;  the  other,  I.O. 
130,  who  was  also  ambitious  to  be  a  stenographer,  started  her 
work  in  that  vocation,  and  is  now  a  successful  office  manager. 

ReIvATion  of  InteIvUGEnce  to  Training  beeore 
Entering  Occupations 

Table  XX  distributes  the  272  persons  engaged  in  occupations 
in  relation  to  their  intelligence  and  also  in  relation  to  the  specific 
training  which  they  had  for  the  occupation  which  they  entered. 


table   XX.      RELATION   BETWEEN   INTELLIGENCE  AND 
occupational  TRAINING 


Intelligence 

Ratings — I.  Q. 

Totals 

Training  for  the 

Occupation  before 

Entering  it 

80-99 

100-119 

120  or  over 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

Some  in  High 
School  or  Later 
Number 

9 
21 

34 
79 

24 
36 

42 
64 

33 
30 

76 
70 

9 
14 

55 
86 

18 
26 

52 
74 

27 
20 

107 
80 

8 
42 

11 

58 

3 
30 

7 
70 

11 

38 

18 
62 

26 
21 

100 

79 

45 
31 

101 

69 

71 

Percent 

26 

None  in  High 
School  or  Later 
Number 

201 

Percent 

74 

Total 

43 

66 

109 

64 

70 

134 

19 

10 

29 

126 

146 

272 

The  girls  evidently  had  more  training  for  their  occupations 
than  the  boys.  This  is  expressed  by  the  percent  of  31  for  the 
girls  and  21  for  the  boys.  Moreover,  as  has  already  been  shown, 
a  higher  percent  of  girls  than  of  boys  tended  to  persist  in  their 
vocational  ambitions.  The  character  of  the  vocational  ambitions 
of  the  girls  may  account  for  these  facts.  By  far  the  greater 
number  of  girls  were  ambitious  to  fill  clerical  positions  and 


PEBSISTENCE  OF  PLANS  85 

either  took  commercial  subjects  in  the  high  school  or  attended  a 
business  college  after  graduation  and  before  securing  a  position. 

No  unmistakable  relation  between  intelligence  and  occupa- 
tional training  is  apparent.  On  the  one  hand,  more  of  the  group 
of  less  than  average  intelligence  had  taken  such  training  than 
was  true  of  the  average  group.  On  the  other  hand,  more  of 
the  superior  group  had  occupational  training  than  was  the  case 
with  either  of  the  other  two  groups.  Differences,  however,  as 
revealed  by  the  percents  of  Table  XX  are  not  large  enough  to 
be  especially  significant. 

The  real  point  of  interest  in  this  table  is  the  fact  that  only 
71  out  of  272  of  these  former  high-school  pupils,  or  26  percent 
of  them,  had  any  training  either  in  the  high  school  or  after 
leaving  the  high  school  for  the  occupations  in  which  they  are  now 
engaged.  In  other  words,  approximately  three  out  of  every 
four  of  them  had  not  had  any  preparation  whatever  for  their 
vocation.  Either  there  was  no  vocational  guidance  worth  men- 
tioning in  connection  with  these  five  high  schools,  or  the  pro- 
vision for  vocational  instruction  was  very  meager.  The  truth 
is  that  both  counts  of  the  indictment  can  be  established  beyond 
a  reasonable  doubt.  These  five  high  schools  are  under  the 
shadow  of  Stanford  University,  and  none  of  them  is  more  than 
fifty  miles  from  the  University  of  California.  Their  location  has 
caused  them  to  stress  college  entrance  to  the  neglect  of  vocational 
education.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  74  percent  of 
those  who  entered  occupations  after  attending  these  high  schools 
were  compelled  to  do  so  without  any  specific  preparation. 

RE1.AT10N  BETWEEN  Inteeeigence  and  Persistence 
IN  Educational  Plans 

The  reader  will  recall  that  290  of  the  students  on  whom, 
after  the  four-year  period,  the  data  were  secured  were  still  at- 
tending some  educational  institution.  In  order  to  compare  their 
plans  as  expressed  in  1917-18  with  their  realization  of  them  in 
1921-22,  an  arbitrary  rating  of  the  educational  institutions  they 
were  attending  was  applied.     Thus  a  college  or  university  was 


86 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


rated  higher  than  a  normal  school,  a  normal  school  higher  than 
a  business  college,  etc.  Table  XXI  shows  the  relation  between 
the  intelligence  of  these  students  and  the  rank  of  the  institutions 
they  were  attending  in  1921-22. 

In  contrast  with  the  showing  of  Table  XVII,  where  it  was 
found  that  only  40  percent  of  those  who  entered  occupations  were 
employed  in  the  occupation  of  their  original  choice,  Table  XXI 
indicates  that  81  percent  of  those  who  continued  their  education 


TABLE  XXI.     DISTRIBUTION  OF  290  PUPIIvS  ACCORDING  TO  INTELU- 
GENCE  AND  PERSISTENCE  IN  EDUCATIONAL  PEANS 


General  Intelligence — I.  Q. 

Totals 

80-99 

100-119 

120  or  over 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

B 

G 

Both 

Pupils  Following 
Educational  Plans 
THE  Same  as,  Equal 
TO,  OR  Superior  to 
Original  Plans 
Number 

9 
64 

5 
36 

21 

62 

13 

38 

30 
63 

18 
37 

57 
85 

10 
15 

70 
86 

21 
14 

127 

81 

31 
19 

53 

98 

1 
2 

25 

83 

5 
17 

78 
93 

6 

7 

119 
89 

16 
11 

116 
75 

39 
25 

?35 

Percent 

81 

Pupils  Following 
Educational  Plans 
of  Lower  than 
Original  Rank 
Number 

55 

Percent 

19 

Totals 

14 

34 

48 

67 

91 

158 

54 

30 

84 

135 

155 

290 

beyond  the  high  school  are  carrying  out  plans  the  same  as,  equal 
to,  or  superior  to  their  original  plans  for  an  education.  Also 
it  appears  from  Table  XXI  that  89  percent  of  the  boys  and  only 
75  percent  of  the  girls  are  following  the  same  or  higher  edu- 
cational plans,  whereas  of  those  in  occupations  only  26  percent 
of  the  boys  and  56  percent  of  the  girls  were  carrying  out  their 
original  intentions. 

The  difference  in  persistence  of  educational  plans  between 
the  boys  and  girls  is  due  in  a  measure  to  the  fact  that  most 
of  the  boys  have  ambitions  leading  to  professional  occupations 
that  require  a  college  education,  while  a  considerable  number 
of  girls  who  originally  planned  to  go  to  college  decided,  after 


FEBSISTENCE   OF  PLANS 


87 


graduation  from  the  high  school,  to  teach  and  are  now  attending 
normal  schools. 

There  is  a  more  clearly  marked  relationship  between  intelli- 
gence and  persistence  in  educational  plans  than  there  is  between 
intelligence  and  persistence  in  vocational  plans.  There  is  a 
decided  rise  in  the  percent  of  boys  and  girls  following  the  same 
or  higher  educational  plans  as  the  average  of  intelligence  in- 
creases. In  the  lowest  intelligence  group,  63  percent;  in  the 
medium  group,  81  percent;  and  in  the  highest  group,  93  per- 
cent have  persisted  in  the  same  or  better  plans  for  their 
education. 


TABIvE  XXII.      INTEI.UGENCE  OF  THOSE  IN  OCCUPATIONS  AND  IN 
EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS 


General  Intelligence — l.Q. 

80-99 

100-119 

120  or  over 

Number 

Percent 

Number 

Percent 

Number 

Percent 

Group  now  in  educa- 
tional institutions  . . 

Group  now  in 

occupations 

48 
109 

16 
40 

158 
134 

55 

49 

84 
29 

29 
11 

There  appears  to  be  a  clear-cut  difference  in  intelligence 
between  the  pupils  now  in  occupations  and  those  in  educational 
institutions  beyond  the  high  school.  This  fact  is  shown  in  gen- 
eral by  the  median  intelligence  quotients  of  the  two  groups.  For 
those  in  educational  institutions  it  is  115,  and  for  those  in  occu- 
pations it  is  105.  The  condition  is  exhibited  in  greater  detail 
in  Table  XXII. 

In  this  table  the  reader's  attention  is  particularly  called  to 
the  fact  that  among  the  pupils  now  in  educational  institutions, 
only  16  percent  have  intelligence  quotients  below  100;  while  on 
the  other  hand  of  the  pupils  now  in  occupations,  40  percent 
have  intelligence  quotients  below  100.  At  the  high  end  of  the 
range  of  intelligence  the  preponderance  is  reversed.  In  other 
words,  a  much  greater  proportion  of  those  in  educational  insti- 


88 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


tutions  have  intelligence  quotients  of  120  or  over  than  is  the 
case  with  those  now  in  occupations. 

Another  distribution  of  the  group  in  occupations — a  distribu- 
tion which  is  not  here  reproduced  in  tabular  form — brought  out 
the  general  fact  that  those  who  left  the  high  school  to  go  to 
work  before  graduation  had  a  median  intelligence  quotient  of  95, 
while  those  who  completed  the  high  school  before  going  to  work 
had  a  median  intelligence  quotient  of  iii.  Observe  also  that 
the  intelligence  of  those  who  left  school  to  go  to  work  is  20 
points  below  that  of  the  group  in  educational  institutions. 

There  is  likewise  considerable  difference  between  those  who 
are  still  pursuing  their  education  and  those  who  are  now  em- 


TABI.B  XXIII.     VOCATIONAI.  AMBITIONS  OF  THOSE  IN  OCCUPATIONS 
AND  IN  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS 


Rank  IV 

Rank  III 

Rank  II 

Rank  I 

Num- 
ber 

Per- 
cent 

Num- 
ber 

Per- 
cent 

Num- 
ber 

Per- 
cent 

Num- 
ber 

Per- 
cent 

Group  in  educational 
institutions 

Group  in  occupations 

0 

1 

0.0 
0.4 

32. 
120. 

11.0 
44.0 

152. 
97. 

52.0 
35.6 

106. 

54. 

37.0 
20.0 

ployed  in  respect  to  the  vocational  ambitions  which  they  had 
four  years  ago.  Table  XXIII  gives  the  details.  Although  only 
one  person  in  the  occupations  group  expressed  a  preference  for 
occupations  of  Rank  IV  or  V,  it  will  be  seen  that  44  percent  of 
those  in  this  group  were  content  with  Rank  III,  while  only  1 1  per- 
cent of  those  in  educational  institutions  looked  forward  to  similar 
vocations.  The  preponderance  of  choice  for  Rank  I  among  the 
pupils  who  continued  their  education  is  also  worthy  of  note 
(37  percent  as  compared  with  20  percent). 

Summary  and  Conclusions 

I.  This  study  represents  a  fourth-year  follow-up  on  771 
high-school  pupils  who  had  been  tested  for  general  intelligence 
and  who  had  answered  questions  regarding  vocational  and  edu- 
cational plans  in  191 7- 18. 


PEBSISTENCE  OF  PLANS 


89 


2.  Of  these,  272  were  found  in  occupations  and  290  in 
educational  institutions  beyond  the  high  school. 

3.  Among  those  in  occupations,  40  percent  were  employed 
at  tasks  ranking  equal  to  or  better  than  their  ambitions  while  60 
percent  were  in  occupations  of  lower  rank.  More  girls  than 
boys  were  following  vocations  of  their  original  choice. 

4.  In  the  same  group  it  was  found  that  whereas  in  1917-18, 
99.6  percent  had  ambitions  for  occupations  of  Rank  III  or 
above,  in  1921-22,  39  percent  were  actually  found  in  occupations 
of  Ranks  IV  and  V. 

5.  The  influence  of  intelligence  on  persistence  in  vocational 
plans  was  found  to  be  noticeable  but  not  pronounced. 

6.  Only  26  percent  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  occupations  had 
had  any  specific  training  either  in  the  high  school  or  after  leaving 
it  for  the  occupations  in  which  they  were  engaged. 

7.  There  appears  to  be  a  closer  relation  between  intelligence 
and  persistence  in  educational  plans  than  between  intelligence  and 
persistence  in  vocational  plans. 

8.  In  terms  of  median  intelligence  quotients,  those  in  edu- 
cational institutions  surpassed  those  in  occupations  by  10  points 
and  were  superior  to  those  who  left  school  to  go  to  work  by 
20  points. 

9.  The  vocational  ambitions  of  those  in  educational  insti- 
tutions ranked  higher  than  the  vocational  ambitions  of  those  now 
in  occupations.  Of  those  in  educational  institutions  89  percent 
had  ambitions  ranking  I  and  II  while  only  55  percent  of  those 
in  occupations  had  equivalent  ambitions. 

10.  The  data  presented  in  this  study  tend  to  support  the 
theory  that  information  regarding  educational  and  vocational 
plans  of  high-school  pupils  while  they  are  still  in  the  high  school 
has  more  significance  than  has  heretofore  been  attached  to  it, 
and  particularly  that  measurements  of  general  intelligence  may 
be  of  great  value  to  the  vocational  and  educational  counselor 
in  his  work, 

11.  There  is  also  an  implied  indictment  of  the  high  schools 
studied,  in  the  fact  that  although  41  percent  of  the  cases  fol- 


90  FSTCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 

lowed  up  were  found  to  have  gone  directly  into  occupations  from 
the  high  school,  only  71  out  of  the  272  had  had  any  training 
in  the  high  school  for  the  tasks  undertaken. 

12.  Better  and  more  systematic  educational  and  vocational 
guidance  of  high-school  pupils,  and  more  careful  attention  to 
those  who  will  not  go  on  to  college,  are  needs  that  seem  to  be 
definitely  indicated  by  the  facts  presented. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PSYCHOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  COLLEGE  ENTRANCE 

Since  the  announcement  by  Columbia  University  that  psycho- 
logical tests  had  been  adopted  as  an  optional  means  of  entrance 
to  Columbia  College  for  boys  suitably  recommended,  there  has 
been  widespread  experimentation  with  that  method  of  testing 
fitness  for  college.  Other  universities,  notably  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  University  of  Chicago,  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  Leland  Stanford  University  now  employ  psychologi- 
cal tests  as  one  of  the  conditions  precedent  to  the  admission  of 
students  of  maturity  who  have  not  had  full  high-school  prepara- 
tion. A  high  score  in  a  psychological  examination  is  accepted 
as  evidence  of  ability  to  undertake  university  work  with  profit.* 

The  standardization  of  mental  tests  that  could  be  used  by  in- 
stitutions adopting  such  a  policy  has  been  progressing  rapidly 
within  the  past  three  years.  Dr.  E.  L.  Thorndike  of  Columbia 
University  has  developed  and  is  perfecting  his  "Intelligence  Ex- 
amination for  High  School  Graduates"  ;^  and  Dr.  L.  M.  Terman 
of  Stanford  University  has  published  his  mental  test  for  high- 
school  pupils.^  The  Otis  Absolute  Point  Scale^  and  the  Army 
Alpha  Scale^  have  already  been  widely  used  for  testing  large 
groups  of  college  and  university  students. 

All  first-year  students  at  Stanford  are  now  required  to  take 
the  Thorndike  College  Entrance  examinations,  after  admission. 
Dr.  L.  M.  Terman  is  making  a  careful  study  of  the  college  suc- 
cess of  new  entrants  in  relation  to  their  scores  on  the  Thorndike 
tests.  Upon  the  results  of  this  investigation  will  hinge  the  deci- 
sion as  to  whether  psychological  tests  shall  be  included  among 
the  present  requirements  for  admission  to  the  university. 

Before  abandoning  the  traditional  entrance  requirements,  col- 
lege and  university  authorities  will  want  to  be  assured  that,  as  a 

*See  Chapter  "VTII. 
'See  Appendix,  p.  120. 

•  See  Appendix,  p.  119. 

*  See  Appendix,  p.  120. 
'See  Appendix,  p.  119. 

91 


92  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

means  of  predicting  possible  success  in  college  work,  psychologi- 
cal tests  have  at  least  equal  value  with  the  record  of  the  four 
years  of  preparatory  work  now  required.  The  writer's  contribu- 
tion to  this  discussion  will  consist  of  the  presentation  of  the  data 
regarding  93  young  people  who  were  given  the  Alpha  Army 
Test  in  1917-18  while  still  in  high  school  and  who  entered  Stan- 
ford University  after  graduation  from  high  school. 

In  Table  XXIV  the  cases  of  these  students  are  arranged  in 
quarters  according  to  rank  in  intelligence  quotients.*'  Column  1 
gives  this  rank  order ;  column  2,  the  intelligence  quotients ;  col- 
umn 3,  the  high-school  scholarship  rating.  (All  high-school 
grades  were  given  numerical  values — 1  for  "A,"  2  for  "B," 
etc. — and  averaged. )  Columns  4  to  9  inclusive  indicate  the  quar- 
ter hours  of  university  marks  earned  by  each  student  while  at 
Stanford.  Column  10  shows  the  total  number  of  hours  taken; 
column  11,  the  number  of  honor  points;  and  column  12,  the 
scholarship  rating  in  university  work.'^  The  period  of  university 
work  covered  was  that  of  the  first  three  quarters  (or  that  of  the 
freshman  year). 

Ri;i,ATioN  OF  Rank  in  InteIvUGDnce;  to 

SCHOI.ARSHIP    in    CoIvIvEGE 

The  summary  of  the  23  cases  falling  in  the  first  quarter  indi- 
cates that  the  median  intelligence  quotient  was  127;  that  the 
median  high-school  scholarship  was  1.9  (or  a  trifle  better  than 
B)  ;  and  that  as  to  ratings  at  the  university  47  percent  of  the  A's 
but  only  7  percent  of  the  failures,  belonging  to  the  entire  93  stu- 
dents, were  allotted  to  the  first  quarter.  In  addition  to  this, 
33  percent  of  the  honor  points  came  to  the  students  in  this  quar- 
ter, and  their  average  scholarship  rating  in  university  courses 
was  1.89. 


•All  I.Q.'s  are  computed  on  the  basis  of  the  Kohs-Proctor  jnental  age 
norms  for  the  Alpha  test.    See  Appendix,  p.  117. 

'  This  scholarship  rating  is  secured  by  dividing  the  total  number  of  reg- 
istered hours  into  the  honor  points  earned.  Three  honor  points  are  given  for 
a  grade  of  "A";  two  for  a  grade  of  "  B  " ;  one  for  a  "C";  none  for  "D" 
or  "E".  The  highest  possible  rating  (all  "A's")  would  be  3.00;  the  lowest 
(all  "D's"  or  "E's")  would  be  0.0.    A  rating  of  ''1.0"  is  average. 


COLLEGE  ENTBANCE 


93 


TABI.E  XXIV.      RELATION  BETWEEN  RANK  ORDER  IN   PSYCHOEOGl- 

CAI.  EXAMINATION  AND  SCHOLARSHIP  IN  HIGH  SCHOOL  AND 

UNIVERSITY  (work  OE  THE  FIRST  THREE  QUARTERS) 


Rank 

H.  S. 

Number  of  Hours  Indicated 

Univer- 

Accord- 

I. Q. 

Schol- 

Grades  at  University 

Total 

Honor 

sity 

ing  to 
I.  Q. 

ar- 

biours 

Points 

Schol- 

ship* 

arship 

A 

B 

C 

D 

Cond. 

Fail. 

Rating'" 

1 

S 

S 

4- 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

1 

138 

1.7 

5 

29 

11 

3 

0 

0 

48 

84 

1.75 

2 

136 

2.2 

23 

8 

9 

0 

0 

0 

40 

94 

2.35 

3 

135 

1.8 

5 

30 

10 

0 

0 

0 

45 

85 

1.89 

4 

134 

2.2 

8 

15 

12 

4 

0 

0 

39 

66 

1.69 

5 

133 

1.8 

0 

0 

29 

6 

0 

3 

38 

29 

0.76 

6 

132 

1.6 

3 

13 

10 

15 

0 

0 

41 

45 

1.10 

7 

131 

1.0 

31 

19 

0 

0 

0 

0 

50 

131 

2  62 

8 

130 

1.3 

20 

10 

0 

0 

0 

0 

30 

80 

2  66 

9 

129 

1.2 

33 

13 

0 

0 

0 

0 

46 

125 

2.71 

10 

128 

2.4 

5 

19 

15 

5 

0 

0 

44 

68 

1.54 

11 

128 

2.2 

5 

4 

16 

5 

5 

2 

37 

39 

1.05 

12 

127 

1.9 

15 

33 

0 

0 

0 

0 

48 

111 

2.31 

13 

127 

1.7 

11 

21 

14 

0 

0 

0 

46 

89 

1.93 

14 

126 

1.3 

25 

11 

8 

0 

0 

0 

44 

105 

2.40 

15 

126 

2.9 

1 

25 

17 

0 

3 

0 

46 

70 

1.52 

16 

125 

2.6 

0 

9 

26 

0 

7 

4 

46 

44 

0.95 

17 

125 

2.5 

7 

23 

8 

1 

5 

0 

44 

75 

1.70 

18 

125 

1.9 

6 

8 

17 

0 

0 

0 

31 

51 

1.66 

19 

125 

2.8 

5 

34 

5 

0 

0 

0 

44 

88 

2.00 

20 

124 

2.9 

1 

20 

16 

5 

0 

0 

42 

59 

1.40 

21 

123 

1.4 

14 

16 

7 

8 

0 

0 

45 

81 

2.80 

22 

122 

1.5 

15 

18 

11 

0 

0 

0 

44 

92 

2.09 

23 

122 

2.6 

24 

262 

22 

3 

0 

0 

0 

49 

119 

2.43 

Totals, 

First 

Quarter 

400 

244 

52 

20 

9 

987 

1,830 

1.89' 

24 

122 

1.8 

5 

11 

19 

11 

0 

0 

46 

56 

1.22 

25 

121 

1.3 

17 

6 

2 

0 

0 

0 

25 

65 

2.60 

26 

121 

2.2 

14 

22 

8 

0 

0 

0 

44 

99 

2.25 

27 

120 

1.1 

28 

14 

0 

0 

0 

0 

42 

112 

2.57 

28 

120 

1.1 

6 

29 

5 

5 

0 

0 

45 

81 

1.80 

29 

120 

2.8 

2 

23 

17 

0 

5 

0 

47 

69 

1.47 

30 

120 

2.7 

0 

15 

20 

0 

5 

5 

45 

50 

1.10 

31 

119 

1.7 

5 

8 

14 

8 

5 

5 

45 

45 

1.00 

32 

118 

2.4 

0 

15 

19 

4 

3 

1 

42 

49 

1,16 

33 

118 

1.0 

8 

35 

4 

0 

0 

0 

47 

98 

2.08 

34 

118 

1.5 

12 

25 

0 

0 

0 

0 

37 

86 

2.32 

35 

117 

2.4 

8 

8 

29 

1 

0 

0 

46 

69 

1.50 

36 

117 

2.0 

0 

25 

13 

5 

0 

0 

43 

63 

1.46 

37 

116 

2  1 

0 

18 

22 

0 

0 

0 

40 

58 

1.45 

38 

116 

2.1 

0 

28 

11 

5 

0 

0 

44 

67 

1 .  52 

39 

116 

2.5 

5 

0 

0 

0 

5 

5 

15 

15 

1.00 

40 

116 

1.7 

10 

21 

8 

3 

0 

0 

42 

80 

1.90 

41 

116 

2  4 

3 

12 

18 

10 

0 

4 

47 

51 

1.08 

42 

115 

1.9 

20 

17 

7 

0 

0 

0 

44 

101 

2.29 

94 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

TABi,i;  XXIV  (Continued) 


Rank 

H.S. 

Number  of  Hours  Indicated 

Univer- 

Accord- 

Schol- 

Grades  at  University 

Total 

Honor 

sity 

C\     11 

ing  to 
I.  Q. 

I.  Q. 

ar" 

Hours 

Points 

Schol- 

ship* 

X  wixi  l>o 

arship 

■— •    •<^» 

A 

B 

C 

D 

Cond. 

Fail. 

Rating*" 

1 

2 

3 

4 

6 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

•    43 

115 

2.0 

0 

30 

11 

0 

0 

0 

41 

71 

1.77 

44 

115 

3.0 

0 

24 

12 

10 

0 

0 

46 

60 

1.30 

45 

115 

2.3 

5 

26 

14 

0 

0 

0 

45 

81 

1.80 

46 

113 

2.2 

17 

21 

11 

0 

0 

0 

49 

104 

2.12 

Totals, 

Second 

Quarter 

165 

433 

264 

62 

23 

20 

967 

1630 

1.52" 

47 

113 

2.7 

10 

7 

23 

8 

0 

0 

48 

67 

1.40 

[MedianY 

48 

113 

3  0 

0 

6 

15 

0 

0 

8 

29 

27 

0.93 

49 

112 

2  1 

6 

9 

24 

4 

0 

0 

43 

60 

1.40 

50 

112 

2.0 

0 

6 

8 

10 

8 

12 

44 

20 

0.45 

51 

112 

2.6 

0 

19 

16 

5 

0 

5 

45 

54 

1.20 

52 

111 

3.2 

9 

18 

9 

10 

0 

0 

46 

72 

1.56 

53 

111 

3.0 

0 

8 

27 

8 

0 

0 

43 

43 

1.00 

54 

111 

3.0 

0 

0 

2 

0 

0 

9 

11 

2 

0.18 

55 

110 

1.8 

10 

28 

5 

0 

0 

0 

43 

91 

2.11 

56 

110 

2.8 

7 

11 

13 

10 

7 

0 

48 

56 

1.16 

57 

110 

2.4 

3 

24 

19 

4 

0 

0 

50 

76 

1.53 

58 

110 

1.0 

16 

18 

8 

0 

0 

0 

42 

92 

2.20 

59 

110 

2  3 

5 

13 

29 

0 

0 

0 

47 

70 

1.49 

60 

110 

3.0 

0 

9 

22 

12 

0 

3 

46 

40 

0.87 

61 

110 

2.0 

7 

18 

10 

0 

0 

0 

35 

67 

1.91 

62 

110 

3.1 

0 

9 

19 

5 

8 

0 

41 

37 

0.81 

63 

109 

2  2 

0 

13 

10 

7 

0 

0 

30 

36 

1.20 

64 

109 

3.3 

2 

0 

10 

0 

4 

0 

16 

16 

1.00 

65 

109 

3.0 

0 

10 

1 

8 

5 

9 

33 

21 

0.63 

66 

108 

3.3 

3 

4 

10 

10 

0 

0 

33 

33 

1.00 

67 

108 

3.0 

0 

15 

32 

3 

0 

0 

50 

62 

1.24 

68 

107 

3.0 

0 

15 

8 

10 

3 

0 

36 

38 

1.06 

69 

107 

3.0 

0 

23 

10 

10 

0 

0 

43 

56 

1.30 

70 

107 

2.7 

0 

10 

35 

0 

0 

0 

45 

55 

1.22 

Totals, 

Third 

Quarter 

68 

286 

348 

116 

35 

46 

899 

1124 

1.20° 

71 

106 

2.2 

0 

5 

0 

0 

13 

0 

18 

10 

0.55 

72 

106 

2.6 

0 

0 

38 

3 

0 

4 

45 

38 

0.84 

73 

106 

3.0 

0 

0 

5 

11 

2 

3 

21 

5 

0.24 

74 

106 

2.9 

0 

9 

29 

5 

0 

0 

43 

47 

1.09 

75 

106 

2.2 

9 

17 

14 

0 

0 

3 

43 

75 

1.74 

76 

106 

2.5 

10 

15 

9 

7 

0 

0 

41 

69 

1.70 

77 

105 

2.2 

13 

31 

5 

0 

0 

0 

49 

106 

2.16 

78 

105 

2.7 

0 

5 

34 

5 

0 

0 

44 

44 

1.00 

79 

105 

3.0 

0 

2 

16 

5 

5 

17 

45 

20 

0.44 

80 

105 

3.3 

10 

26 

7 

0 

0 

0 

43 

89 

2.07 

81 

105 

3.3 

0 

0 

6 

8 

0 

0 

14 

6 

0.43 

COLLEGE  ENTBANCE 
TABIDS  XXIV  {Continued) 


95 


Rank 

l.Q. 

Number  of  Hours  Indicated 

Univer- 

Accord- 

l.Q. 

Schol- 

Grades at  University 

Total 

Honor 

sity 

ing  to 

ar- 
ship 

Hours 

Points 

Schol- 

l.Q. 

arship 

A 

B 

G 

L) 

7 
8 

Cond. 

Fail. 

Hating'' 

1 

2 

S 

4 

6 

6 

8 

9 

10 

// 

in 

82 

104 

2.6 

0 

10 

5 

0 

7 

30 

25 

0.83 

83 

104 

3.0 

0 

18 

13 

9 

0 

4 

44 

49 

1  11 

84 

103 

3.0 

3 

24 

19 

0 

0 

0 

46 

76 

1  65 

85 

102 

4.0 

0 

6 

17 

5 

0 

3 

31 

29 

0.93 

86 

100 

1.0 

0 

12 

26 

5 

0 

0 

43 

50 

1.16 

87 

100 

4.0 

0 

3 

19 

14 

1 

5 

42 

25 

0.59 

88 

100 

1.0 

7 

25 

4 

0 

0 

0 

36 

75 

2.09 

89 

96 

2.8 

0 

13 

30 

0 

0 

3 

46 

56 

1  22 

90 

95 

3.6 

0 

3 

18 

9 

0 

0 

30 

24 

0.80 

91 

92 

2.9 

6 

10 

16 

8 

5 

0 

45 

54 

1.20 

92 

90 

4.0 

0 

10 

16 

15 

0 

5 

46 

36 

0.78 

93 

82 

2.7 

0 

3 

0 

0 

0 

10 

13 

6 

0.46 

Totals, 

Fourth 

Quarter 

58 

247 

346 

117 

26 

64 

858 

1014 

1.18' 

Grand  Totals 

563  1373 

1225 

355 

104 

1.39 

3759 

5665 

•1.0  18  the  iiighest  and  4.0  the  lowest  high-school  scholarship  rating. 
bS.O  is  the  highest  and  0  the  lowest  university  scholarship  rating. 
•Median  scholarship  rating  for  quartile. 
<'No.  47  ia  the  median  student  according  to  intelligence  quotients. 

The  corresponding  figures  for  the  fourth  quarter  contrast 
with  those  of  the  first  quarter.  For  example,  only  10  percent 
of  the  A's  awarded  to  the  93  students  were  earned  by  the  23  stu- 
dents whose  intelligence  quotients  were  in  the  lowest  quarter.  On 
the  other  hand,  46  percent  of  all  the  failures  occurred  among 
these  students.  The  general  condition  with  respect  to  university 
marks  is  shown  in  Figure  5.  Curve  I  is  for  the  students  whose 
I.Q.'s  were  in  the  first  or  highest  quarter;  curve  II  is  for  those 
whose  I.Q.'s  were  in  the  second  quarter;  and  so  on.  The  sig- 
nificant fact  to  be  observed  is  that  curves  I  and  II  tend  strongly 
to  slope  downward  and  to  the  right,  while  curves  III  and  IV  slope 
upward.  Indeed,  the  pairs  of  curves  form  a  rude  X.  This  X  is 
obscured  by  two  perfectly  explainable  causes.  The  first  is  the 
tendency  to  "condition"  capable  students  who  have  technically 
failed — generally  because  of  some  unusual  circumstance.  This 
tendency  causes  curves  I  and  II  to  show  an  irregular  rise  at  the 


96 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


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COLLEGE  ENTEANCE 


97 


point  representing  "conditions."  The  second  cause  which  makes 
the  curves  irregular  also  has  to  do  with  the  grade  of  "condi- 
tioned." Curve  IV  drops  sharply  at  this  point.  Instructors  hav- 
ing dull  students  whose  work  has  not  been  clearly  of  passing  qual- 

Pepcent 
50 


40 


30 


20 


10 


1/7 

^ LEGEND - 

1  First  Qoaptile  I Q's  122-138 

H  Second  QuAPTiLE  lO's  II 3-122 

Ill  Third  Ouartilc  rQ'5l07-ll3 

IV/FOURTH  QUAPTILEIQ'5  82-107 


Mapks  a 

FIGURE  5. 


D 


D       CoND.      Fail 


PERCENT   OF    EACH    UNIVERSITY    MARK    RECEIVED   BY 
QUARTIEES  I-IV.      DATA  FROM  TABEE  XV 

ity  tend  to  withhold  the  "condition"  and  to  fail  them  without 
reprieve.  With  these  rather  easily  explainable  limitations,  Fig- 
ure 5  makes  clear  the  fact  that  the  high-school  students  who 


98  rSYCnOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

received  the  better  half  of  the  intelligence  ratings  secured  many 
high  marks  in  the  university  and  few  low  ones,  and  that  the 
exact  reverse  was  true  with  respect  to  the  high-school  students 
who  receive  the  lower  half  of  the  intelligence  ratings. 

The  reader's  attention  is  also  directed  to  the  contrast  l^etween 
the  figures  given  in  Table  XXV  for  the  cases  above  the  median 
(quarters  I  and  II  combined)  and  the  figures  for  the  cases  below 
the  median  (quarters  III  and  IV  combined).  From  every  view- 
point afforded  by  Table  XXV  and  Figure  5  it  appears  that  the 
Stanford  students  with  I.O.'s  of  113  to  138  did  work  in  the  uni- 
versity that  was  distinctly  superior  to  the  work  done  by  those 
whose  I.Q.'s  ranged  from  113  down  to  82. 

The  "Criticai.  Score,"  or  Inteeugence  Levee  Beeow 
Which  Success  in  CoeeEGE  is  Probeematicae 

The  median  I.O.  of  the  first-year  high-school  pupils  has  been 
shown  to  approximate  105,  that  of  high-school  graduates  111, 
and  that  of  those  going  on  to  college  116.^  Table  XXIV  shows 
the  median  I.O.  of  the  93  university  students  therein  tabulated 
to  be  113.  For  the  purposes  of  this  discussion  it  will  be  conven- 
ient to  divide  the  I.O.  range  into  five  sections,  as  follows :  I,  over 
125,  superior;  II,  110-124,  above  average;  III,  95-109,  average; 
IV,  80-94,  below  average;    V,  below  80,  inferior  or  defective. 

If  the  median  I.O.  of  college  freshmen  is  found  to  lie  between 
110  and  116,  we  would  expect  a  priori,  to  find  that  those  who 
tested  below  110  would  furnish  the  larger  proportion  of  failures. 
In  Table  XXIV  there  are  31  cases  where  the  I.Q.  falls  below  110. 
These  31  cases  (one-third  of  the  total  number)  furnish  52  per- 
cent of  the  total  number  of  hours  of  failure,  and  63.1  percent  of 
the  total  number  having  scholarship  ratings  below  1.00,  or  aver- 
age. This  showing  would  seem  to  indicate  that  in  order  to  do 
average  or  better  work  in  college  it  is  necessary  to  have  "better- 
than-average"  intelligence,  i.e.,  an  I.Q.  of  110  or  above. 

It  should  also  be  remembered  that  the  data  gathered  in 
Table  XXIV  represent  only  the  first  three  quarters  of  university 


» Chapter  II,  p.  27.    Also  Chapter  IV,  p.  58. 


COLLEGE  ENTBANCE  99 

work,  corresponding  to  the  freshman  year.  If  the  same  process 
of  selection  takes  place  in  college  that  we  have  shown  to  take 
place  in  high  school,  we  should  expect  the  median  I.O.  of  college 
graduates  to  be  120  or  over.  This  would  mean  that  many  of 
those  having  just  average  intelligence,  who  are  able  to  do  the 
work  of  the  freshman  year  with  a  fair  degree  of  success  would 
be  likely  to  be  eliminated  before  the  senior  year  in  college.  That 
such  would  be  the  case  seems  to  be  a  fair  inference  from  the 
scholarship  records  of  those  whose  I.Q.'s  fell  below  110  in 
Table  XXIV.  Those  having  just  average  intelligence  would  oc- 
cupy the  same  relative  place,  so  far  as  elimination  from  college 
is  concerned,  as  those  having  below-average  intelligence  occupy 
in  the  high  school'  The  probability  is  strong  that  from  60  to 
80  percent  of  them  will  be  eliminated  during  the  college  course. 

Coivi^EGE  Entrance  by  High-Sciiooe  Marks  or 
Mentae  Tests? 

From  the  data  presented  in  Table  XXII  there  appears  to  l)e 
a  close  relation  between  rank  in  mental  tests  and  scholarship  rat- 
ings in  university  work.  A  point  that  needs  further  discussion 
is  whether  mental  tests  would  be  as  reliable  a  basis  for  the  selec- 
tion of  college  students  as  the  record  of  four  years  in  high  school. 
Or,  to  state  the  problem  differently,  could  the  mental  tests  be 
safely  substituted  for  the  high-school  scholarship  record  as  a 
basis  for  admission  to  college? 

Tables  XXVI  and  XXVII  show  respectively  the  correlations 
between  intelligence  quotients  and  university  scholarship  ratings, 
and  between  high-school  and  university  scholarship  ratings.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  the  high-school  marks  represent  rat- 
ings based  on  all  marks  received  during  four  years  of  high  school ; 
that  the  university  ratings  are  based  on  the  first  throe  quarters 
of  university  work;  that  the  mental  tests  were  given  in  1916- 
17,  while  the  students  were  still  in  high  school;  and  that  only 
one  group  mental  test,  the  Army  Alpha,  was  employed. 


•See  Tables  VI  (a)  and  VI  (b),  p.  25. 


100 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


In  Table  XXVI  there  are  ten  cases  where  the  I.Q.  is  above  the 
group  median,  "110-114,"  and  where  the  scholarship  rating  is 
below  the  group  median,  "1.25-1.49,"  but  only  two  of  the  cases 
fall  below  "1.00,"  which  stands  for  average  scholarship. 

Below  the  I.Q.  group  median  there  are  six  cases  which  show 
a  scholarship  rating  above  the  scholarship  rating  median,  but 
none  of  these  has  an  I.Q.  below  100, 

TABI^i:  XXVI.     CORREI.ATIONS  BETWEEN  INTEEEIGENCE  QUOTIENTS 
OF  93  STANFORD  UNIVERSITY  STUDENTS  AND  THEIR  UNI- 
VERSITY  SCHOLARSHIP   RATINGS 


I.  Q.'s  by 

University  Scholarships  Rating 

Alpha 
1916-17 

0.00 
0.24 

0.25 
0.49 

0.50 
0.74 

0.75 
0.99 

1.00 
1.24 

1.25 
1.49 

1.50 
1.74 

1.75 
1.99 

2.00 
2.24 

2.25 
2.49 

2.50 
2.74 

2.75 
2.99 

Totals 

13.5-139 

2 

1 

3 

130-134 

1 
1 

1 
1 
2 
4 
3 
8 
2 
1 
1 

"2' 
3 
3 
1 

1 

4 

"2 
2 

2 
1 

2 

1 
2 

5 
11 
11 
15 

125-129 

1 
1 
3 
1 

1 
1 
1 
3 
2 
1 

2 
2 
2 

120-124 

115-119 

110-114 

1 

1 

1 
2 

2 
1 

3 
1 
2 
1 
1 

17 

105-109 

19 

100-104 

7 

95-99 

2 

90-94 

2 

85-90 

0 

80-84 

1 

1 

Totals 

2 

4 

3 

10 

23 

9 

12 

8 

9 

7 

5 

1 

93 

Median  I.  Q.  group,  110-114. 
Median  scholarslrp  rating,  1.25-1.49. 
Pearson  coefficient  of  correlation,  0.495. 
Probable  error,  0.0526. 

In  Table  XXVII  there  are  nine  cases  of  students  above  the 
median  group  in  high-school  scholarship  and  below  the  median 
group  in  university  scholarship.  Three  are  below  "1.00"  in  uni- 
versity ratings.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  eight  who  fall  be- 
low the  median  in  high-school  scholarship  and  who  stand  above 
the  median  in  university  scholarship.  But  the  general  agreement 
between  high-school  grades  and  university  work  is  sufficient  to 
give  the  relatively  high  correlation  of  0.615. 

In  discussing  an  ideal  examination  of  the  intelligence  of  can- 
didates for  college  entrance.  Dr.  E.  L.  Thorndike^^  says  that  the 

"Thorndike,  E.  L.  "Intelligence  examinations  for  college  entrants," 
Journal  of  Educational  Eesearch,  1:329,  May,  1920. 


COLLEGE  ENTBANCE 


101 


score  should  correlate  as  closely  as  possible  with  future  achieve- 
ment in  college,  and  further : 

This  maximum  correlation  will  not  be  i.oo,  since  achievement  in 
college  IS  due  m  part  to  health,  to  freedom  from  personal  worries,  and 
to  various  moral  qualities  as  well  as  to  intellect.  .  .  .  Within  the  re- 
stricted range  of  those  who  complete  a  high-school  course  and  actually 
become  candidates,  we  may  expect  as  a  maximum  0.55  to  0.65  possibly 
more.  A  correlation  above  0.50  is  probably  an  improvement  over  the 
attainment  of  standard  systems  of  accrediting  high  schools  or  of 
entrance  to  college  by  examination  in  school  subjects. 

TABI^E:   XXVII.      CORRELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  AND 
UNIVERSITY  SCHOLARSHIP  RATINGS 


High 
School 

University  Scholarship  Ratings 

Scholar- 
ship 

0.00 
0.24 

0.25 
0.49 

0.50 
0.74 

0.75 
0.99 

1.00 
1.24 

1 

1.25 
1.49 

1.50 
1.74 

1.75 
1.99 

2.00 
2.24 

2.25 
2.49 

2.50 
2  74 

2.75 
2.99 

Totals 

1.00-1.24 

1 

3 

.... 

1 
2 
2 

2 
3 

r 

7 
5 
6 
8 
15 

1.25-1.49 

1.50-1.74 

2 
1 
2 
2 

2 
2 
2 

1 

1 
1 

1.75-1.99 

1 

"3' 

1 

'3' 
2 

1 

2.00-2.24 

1 

2 . 25-2 . 49 

li 

1 

1 

s 

2.50-2.74 

3 

4 
5 
4 
2 

2 

1 
2 

1 

lU 

2.75-2.99 

"2' 

1 
2 

1 

11 

3.00-3.24 

1 

3 

IC 

3.25-3.49 

1 

3 

3.50-3.74 

1 
2 

1 

3.75-4.00 

1 

3 

Totals 

2 

4 

3 

10 

23 

9 

12 

8 

9 

7 

5 

1 

93 

Median  university  scholarship-rating  group,  1.25-1.49. 
Median  high-school  scholarship-rating  group,  2.25-2.19. 
Pearson  coefficient  of  correlation,  0.615. 
Probable  error,  0.0445. 

In  Tables  XXVI  and  XXVII  the  correlations  between  intelli- 
gence quotients  and  university  scholarship,  and  between  high- 
school  scholarship  and  university  scholarship  were  0.495,  P.  E. 
0.0526,  and  0.615,  P.  E.  0.0445,  respectively.  That  is,  the  cor- 
relation between  high-school  scholarship  and  university  scholar- 
ship is  higher  by  12  points  than  the  correlation  between  intelli- 
gence quotients  and  university  achievement. 

This  difference  in  correlation  in  favor  of  the  high-school 
scholarship  might  seem  to  indicate  that  the  intelligence  test  is 


102  FSYCEOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

not  as  reliable  a  criterion  as  the  four-year  high-school  record  of 
scholarship  in  determining  fitness  to  do  college  work.  Such  a 
conclusion  would  not  necessarily  follow.  Account  must  be  taken 
of  the  fact  that  the  intelligence  test  given  in  the  case  of  the 
93  students  under  consideration  was  given  three  years  prior  to 
the  collection  of  data  concerning  their  college  work ;  that  it  was 
a  group  test,  not  specifically  designed  for  college  students;  and 
that  no  supplementary  tests  were  given  which  might  have  cor- 
rected or  compensated  for  errors  in  rating  chargeable  to  the  ad- 
mitted shortcomings  of  the  Alpha  Scale.  Consequently  Table 
XXIV  and  the  correlation  0.495  represent  the  accuracy  with 
which  the  person  giving  the  Alpha  Test  to  the  pupils  of  the  high 
schools  near  Stanford  University  in  1917-18  could  have  pre- 
dicted their  probable  high-school  and  university  careers.  He 
would  have  been  able  to  pick  the  50  percent,  who  would  almost 
surely  succeed,  and  the  50  percent  from  among  whose  numbers 
the  great  majority  of  the  failures  and  poor  students  would  be 
found. 

Furthermore,  if  supplementary  group  and  individual  mental 
tests  had  been  given  to  these  high-school  pupils,  much  more  re- 
liable mental  ratings  would  have  resulted  and  the  correlation  be- 
tween mental  level  and  university  work  would  have  been  consid- 
erably higher.  In  support  of  this  contention  two  cases  may  be 
cited,  i.e.,  those  ranking  77  and  80  in  Table  XXIV.  No.  80  had 
a  high-school  scholarship  rating  of  3.3,  having  earned  an  average 
of  "C+"  in  all  high-school  subjects.  Her  intelligence  quotient 
on  Alpha  was  105,  which  is  8  points  below  the  median  for  the 
group.  When  she  was  in  the  eighth  grade  she  was  given  a 
Stanford-Binet  examination  and  earned  an  I.O.  of  120,  which 
corresponds  more  closely  than  the  Alpha  I.O.  entered  in  Table 
XXIV  with  her  university  scholarship  rating  of  2.07.  No.  77 
had  a  high-school  scholarship  rating  of  2.2,  or  about  "B."  His 
Alpha  I.O.  was  105,  but  a  Stanford-Binet  examination  taken  a 
year  earlier  gave  him  an  I.Q.  of  115.  His  university  scholarship 
rating  was  2.16. 


COLLEGE  ENTEANCE  103 

If  the  Stanford-Binet  I.O.'s  of  these  two  students  alone  had 
been  used  in  Table  XXIV  instead  of  the  Alpha  I.O.'s,  the  median 
I.O.  for  the  entire  group  would  have  been  115  instead  of  113; 
and  the  percents  of  ''A"  grades,  honor  points,  and  high  scholar- 
ship ratings  coming  in  the  upper,  or  above-the-median  group, 
would  have  been  considerably  higher.  Likewise,  if  these  two 
cases  had  been  entered  in  Table  XXVI  on  the  basis  of  the  Binet 
I.Q.,  the  correlation  would  have  been  approximately  5  points 
higher,  or  about  0.549. 

It  would  probably  be  impracticable  to  attempt  to  substitute 
mental  examinations  entirely  for  records  of  attainment  in  high 
school  as  a  basis  for  determining  admission  to  college.  But  on 
account  of  the  varying  standards  of  marking  that  prevail  in  high 
schools  it  is  impossible  to  accept  an  "A"  mark  given  by  one  school 
as  the  equivalent  of  an  "A"  mark  given  by  another  school.  Re- 
quiring all  applicants  for  entrance  to  college  to  take  mental  tests 
would  give  to  the  registrar  and  committee  on  credentials  an  ob- 
jective standard  of  judgment  which  would  enable  them  to  esti- 
mate with  greater  accuracy  the  abilities  of  those  seeking  admis- 
sion to  institutions  of  higher  learning.  Especially  would  this  l)e 
true  in  institutions  such  as  Stanford  where  the  number  who 
may  attend  is  limited,  and  w'here  the  number  of  applicants  greatly 
exceeds  the  possible  number  of  entrants. 

Summary  and  Conclusions 

1.  The  ability  to  attain  a  high  score  on  an  intelligence  test 
such  as  the  Army  Alpha  is  presumptive  evidence  of  ability  to 
do  college  work  successfully.  This  is  shown  in  Table  XXIV  by 
the  proportion  of  "A"  marks,  honor  points,  and  above-average 
scholarship  ratings  earned  by  the  above-the-median  group,  and 
by  the  large  proportion  of  "D's,"  conditions,  failures,  and  below- 
average    scholarship    ratings    earned    by    the    below-the-mcdian 

group- 

2.  It  is  possible  to  suggest  a  "critical  score"  or  intelligence 
quotient  below  which  success  in  college  work,  or  ultimate  gradu- 


104  FSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

ation  from  college,  would  be  open  to  question.  Since  the  median 
I.Q.  for  college  freshmen  appears  to  lie  between  110  and  116, 
and  since  the  highest  percent  of  failures,  poor  scholarship  rat- 
ings, and  other  evidences  of  lack  of  ability  to  do  college  work 
successfully  are  found  in  the  below-the-median  group  there  is 
good  reason  to  predict  that  a  majority  of  the  eliminations  from 
college  will  come  from  those  with  I.Q.'s  below  the  median  for 
college  freshmen. 

3.  While  mental  tests  may  not  supplant  "recommended" 
high-school  units  as  a  basis  for  college  entrance,  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  such  tests  will  soon  be  so  well  standardized  as  to  become 
a  generally  accepted  means  of  making  final  selection  from  among 
those  seeking  to  enter  college. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

INTELLIGENCE  TESTS  AS  A  MEANS  OF  ADMIT- 
TING SPECIAL  STUDENTS  TO  COLLEGES 
AND  UNIVERSITIES^ 

Standard  colleges  and  universities  have  come  to  be  almost 
unanimous  in  requiring  at  least  15  units  of  high-school  work  as 
a  prerequisite  to  admission  to  regular  standing.  This  uniform 
requirement  is  made  on  the  assumption  that  college  work  is  so 
organized  that  only  those  with  such  a  minimum  of  preparation 
can  hope  to  carry  on  successfully. 

Coincident  with  the  fixing  of  uniform  standards  for  college 
admission  there  has  been  a  growing  tendency  to  discourage  the 
registration  of  special  students.  Some  colleges  even  pride  them- 
selves in  their  catalog  announcements  that  no  special  students 
are  admitted.  Such  a  policy,  if  uniformly  adopted,  would  mean 
that  a  great  many  young  persons  of  superior  ability  would  be 
absolutely  barred  from  the  benefits  of  higher  education  and  the 
state  and  nation  would  lose  many  capable  leaders  because  train- 
ing had  been  denied  them. 

Since  the  close  of  the  world  war  a  new  condition  has  arisen 
which  has  challenged  the  wisdom  of  a  too  rigid  adherence  to  set 
standards  of  college  admission.  During  the  war  thousands  of 
young  men  left  high  school  to  enter  the  army  or  to  render  indus- 
trial service.  When  the  war  was  over  they  had  been  so  matured 
by  war  experiences  that  they  did  not  want  to  return  to  high- 
school  associations,  but  did  desire  to  continue  their  education. 
The  colleges  of  the  country  rose  to  the  emergency  and  opened 
their  doors  to  the  ex-service  men,  regardless  in  most  cases  of 
entrance  deficiencies.  An  opportunity  was  thus  afforded  to  test 
the  validity  of  the  four-year  high-school  assumption,  particularly 
as  it  applies  to  men  and  women  of  maturity  who  have  had  worth 
while  vocational  or  other  significant  life  experiences. 


>  Reprinted  from  School  and  Society,  Vol.  IG,  No.  408,  October,  1922,  pp. 
471-476,  with  the  permission  of  tho  Science  Press. 

105 


106  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

The  writer  has  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to  make  a  study 
of  the  problem  at  first  hand.  As  counselor  for  170  ex-service 
men  in  training  at  Stanford  University  under  the  United  States 
Veterans'  Bureau,  and  at  the  same  time  a  member  of  the  faculty 
committee  on  admissions  and  advanced  standing,  he  has  been  in 
a  position  to  gather  significant  data  regarding  the  ability  of  men 
without  full  high-school  training,  and  in  some  instances  without 
any  high-school  training  whatever,  to  succeed  in  university  work. 

Stanford  University  definitely  limits  the  number  of  men  with 
less  than  junior  standing  who  will  be  admitted  in  a  given  year. 
First  choice  is  made  from  those  who  present  15  recommended 
high-school  units,  or  passing  grades  in  the  Comprehensive  or  the 
College  Entrance  Examination  Board  examinations.  Since  the 
pressure  to  get  into  the  university  has  been  very  great,  in  spite 
of  greatly  increased  tuitions,  very  few  places  would  ordinarily 
be  left  for  men  lacking  full  preparation.  In  anticipation  of  this 
difficulty  President  Wilbur  asked  the  board  of  trustees  to  author- 
ize the  admission  of  all  disabled  ex-service  men  outside  of  the 
established  limits.  This  was  done  and  the  task  of  making  a 
selection  among  the  men  coming  under  this  ruling  for  whom  ad- 
mission would  be  asked  by  the  Veterans'  Bureau  was  left  to  the 
committee  on  admissions  and  advanced  standing.  The  follow- 
ing tentative  minimum  requirements  were  fixed :  ( 1 )  age  at 
least  21  years;  (2)  two  years  of  high  school;  (3)  a  rating  of 
at  least  "B"  in  a  psychological  examination. 

The  psychological  examination  used  during  the  two  years 
since  the  above  regulation  went  into  effect  was  the  Army  Alpha, 
supplemented  by  the  Terman  Group  Test  of  Intelligence,  forms  A 
and  B.  A  rating  of  B  on  the  Army  Alpha  represents  a  score  of 
105  to  134.  The  rating  of  B  on  the  Alpha  Scale  as  one  of  the 
minimum  requirements  for  special  students  was  chosen  because 
it  was  found  by  the  Division  of  Psychology  of  the  U.  S.  Army 
during  the  war  that  most  of  the  failures  in  the  officers'  training 
camps  were  of  men  who  rated  below  B,  i.e.,  made  scores  below 
105  on  the  Alpha  Scale. 


ADMITTING  SPECIAL  STUDENTS 


107 


At  the  close  of  the  fall  quarter,  1921-22,  there  had  been  41 
cases  admitted  to  Stanford  in  the  way  above  described.  Table 
XXVIII  presents  the  data  regarding  school  grade  reached,  hours 

TABIvE  XXVIII.      SCHOLARSHIP  RATING  OF  41    SPECI.\L  STUDENTS, 

TRAINEES  OF  THE  U.  S.  VETER.\NS'  BUREAU,  AT  STANFORD 

UNIVERSITY,  ARRANGED  IN  RANK  ORDER,  LOWEST 

TO  HIGHEST,  ACCORDING  TO  SCORES  ON 

ARMY  ALPHA  SCALE 


Case 
No. 

Scholarship 

Grade 

reached 

Hours 
attempted 

Grade 
points 

Scholar- 
ship 
rating 

Rank 

in 
Alpha 

Average 
Scholar- 
ship rating 

1 

8th  grade 

9 

0 

0.0 

C4- 

2 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

23 

0 

0.0 

75-104 

0.0 

3 

8th  grade 

9 

0 

0.0 

4 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

10 

0 

0.0 

5 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

64 

62 

0  97 

6 

8th  grade 

14 

14 

1.00 

B 

7 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

40 

32 

0.80 

105-119 

0.50 

8 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

14 

5 

0.35 

9 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

24 

0 

0  0 

10 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

24 

28 

1.16 

11 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

11 

3 

0.27 

12 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

10 

15 

1.50 

B  + 

13 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

60 

78 

1.13 

120-134 

1.07 

14 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

28 

38 

1.35 

15 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 
3  yrs.  H.  S. 

54 

56 

1.03 

16 

12 

14 

1.12 

17 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

56 

62 

1.10 

18 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

33 

17 

0  51 

19 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

9 

14 

1.56 

20 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

9 

14 

1.56 

21 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

40 

63 

1.57 

A 

22 

2  >TS.  H.  S. 

10 

10 

1.00 

135-154 

1.35 

23 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

10 

21 

2  10 

24 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

12 

17 

1.42 

25 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

31 

45 

1.45 

26 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

52 

89 

1.90 

27 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

14 

18 

1.28 

28 

3  >Ts.  H.  S. 

23 

28 

1  21 

29 

5th  grade 

29 

60 

2.07 

30 

8th  grade 

8 

17 

2  13 

31 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

41 

71 

1  74 

32 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

10 

10 

1  00 

33 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

69 

15o 

2.22 

34 

1  yr.  H.  S. 

16 

40 

2 .  50 

A  + 

35 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

33 

63 

1 .  <.H) 

155-212 

1.93 

36 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

36 

67 

1.86 

37 

3  yrs.  H.  S 

23 

39 

1.70 

38 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

17 

M 

2 .  00 

39 

2  yrs.  H.  S. 

63 

111 

1.76 

40 

3  yrs.  H.  S. 

58 

104 

1.80 

41 

1  yr.  H.  S. 

39 

83 

2  13 

Note:    See  note  7,  p.  92,  Chapter  VII. 


108  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 

of  university  work  attempted,  grade  points  earned,  scholar- 
ship rating,  rank  attained  on  Army  Alpha,  and  average  scholar- 
ship ratings  of  each  group.  The  top  line  of  the  table  should  be 
read  as  follows :  Case  No.  1  had  attained  eighth-grade  standing 
in  the  public  schools,  undertook  nine  hours  of  university  work, 
earned  zero  grade  points,  a  scholarship  rating  of  zero,  and  ranked 
lowest  in  the  C  +  (score  75  to  104)  group  on  the  Army  Alpha 
Scale. 

Attention  is  directed  to  the  first  three  cases  in  the  table,  which 
come  in  rank  C+  in  intelligence  rating.  No  special  student  was 
supposed  to  be  admitted  whose  intelligence  rating  fell  below  105, 
the  lower  limit  of  the  B  rating,  but  the  writer  persuaded  the  com- 
mittee on  admissions  to  give  these  three  men  a  trial  as  "may- 
attend"  students.  Such  students  have  all  the  privileges  of  regu- 
lar students  so  far  as  attending  lectures,  taking  examinations, 
etc.,  is  concerned,  but  their  final  status  depends  either  upon  com- 
pletion of  credentials  or  demonstration  of  ability  to  carry  the 
work  undertaken  with  success.  Ordinarily  the  status  is  never 
continued  beyond  the  mid-quarter  examinations,  but  in  the  cases 
of  these  three  Veterans'  Bureau  men  the  "may-attend"  status 
was  continued  for  an  entire  quarter  as  an  experiment.  None  of 
the  three,  however,  succeeded  in  securing  regular  standing,  al- 
though No.  2  was  given  a  second  chance  and  attempted  23  hours 
in  all. 

Beginning  with  case  No.  4,  all  of  the  remaining  men  were 
admitted  to  the  university  as  special  students  and  remained  at 
least  one  quarter  in  residence.  The  cases  are  grouped  by  steps 
of  20  points  on  the  Alpha  Scale  and  designated:  B  (105-119), 
B+  (120-134),  A  (135-154),  and  A-f  (155-212).  There  is 
a  progressive  rise  in  scholarship  rating,  corresponding  to  the  as- 
cending ranks  in  intelligence  from  zero  for  the  C  -j-  group  to  1.93 
for  the  A  -f-  group. 

The  "critical  score"  of  the  distribution  seems  to  be  120,  the 
lower  limit  of  the  B  +  group.  Only  two  of  the  cases,  Nos.  5 
and  6,  are  now  in  the  university,  who  made  scores  below  that 
figure.     One  of  the  two  will  never  be  able  to  pull  through  to 


ADMITTING  SPECIAL  STUDENTS  109 

graduation,  and  the  other  has  had  a  very  precarious  footing  and 
may  slip  and  fall  out  at  any  time  since  he  has  no  margin  for 
safety. 

The  B  +  group  makes  a  bare  C  average  in  scholarship,  i.  e., 
one  grade  point  for  each  hour  of  work  attempted,  as  represented 
by  their  average  scholarship  rating  of  1.07.  It  is  not  until  we 
come  to  the  A  group,  making  Alpha  scores  of  from  135  to  154, 
that  we  find  an  average  scholarship  rating  equal  to  the  average 
for  men  in  the  university.  This  group  averaged  1.35  in  scholar- 
ship. Only  one  man  in  the  A  group  failed  in  his  work.  No.  18, 
who  had  been  seriously  injured  in  an  airplane  smash  in  France 
and  had  not  recovered  his  nervous  balance  sufficiently  to  con- 
centrate on  his  studies. 

The  A  +  group  attained  an  average  scholarship  rating  of 
1.93,  which  is  20  points  above  the  average  for  Stanford's  highly 
selected  group  of  500  women  students,  and  64  points  above  the 
general  average  for  all  men  students  in  the  university.  There 
were  no  failures  at  all  in  this  group,  although  one  had  had  only 
fifth-grade  education,  another  only  eighth-grade  education,  two 
had  had  only  one  year  of  high  school  and  two  others  only  two 
years  of  high  school  before  being  admitted  to  Stanford  as  special 
students  under  the  conditions  described  above. 

A  brief  statement  of  what  some  of  these  men  are  accomplish- 
ing will  give  an  idea  of  the  way  in  which  they  are  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunities  afforded  by  the  Stanford  policy  of 
admitting  men  to  the  privileges  of  university  training  who  lack 
full  entrance  credentials. 

Case  No.  29. — This  man  had  had  only  fifth-grade  education, 
but  had  worked  his  way  up  in  railroad  service  to  being  an  office 
manager.  He  made  a  score  of  155  on  Alpha,  was  admitted  as  a 
special,  and  took  14  hours  of  work.  He  acted  as  clerical  assist- 
ant in  the  writer's  office  for  two  hours  a  day,  took  part  in  two 
dramatic  productions  during  his  first  quarter,  and  made  a  B  aver- 
age in  all  his  work  or  a  scholarship  rating  of  2.00.  The  second 
quarter  he  took  15  hours  of  work,  continued  his  office  service, 
was  leading  man  in  two  dramatic  productions,  was  elected  to 


110  FSYCnOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

presidency  of  the  leading  dramatic  organization  on  the  campus, 
and  made  a  scholarship  rating  of  2.13, — an  average  for  the  two 
quarters  of  2.07. 

Case  No.  34. — This  was  a  man  of  Polish  birth,  who  while 
working  as  a  logger  had  completed  his  elementary  studies.  The 
Veterans'  Bureau  gave  him  one  year  of  secondary  education  and 
sent  him  to  Stanford  to  prepare  for  civil  engineering.  He  made 
a  score  of  168  on  the  Alpha  test.  He  took  16  hours  of  work 
during  his  first  quarter,  including  two  heavy  mathematics  courses, 
and  made  40  grade  points,  with  a  scholarship  rating  of  2.50. 

Case  No.  41. — This  man  had  had  just  one  year  of  high  school, 
but  was  admitted  on  a  score  of  183  on  the  Alpha  Scale,  and  per- 
mitted to  register  as  a  special  student  in  entomology.  His  first 
quarter's  record  won  for  him  the  distinction  of  being  the  Stan- 
ford student  representative  with  the  California  Academy  of  Sci- 
ence expedition  to  South  America.  He  has  since  published  two 
papers  in  leading  scientific  journals  embodying  the  results  of  his 
research  while  with  the  Academy  of  Science  expedition. 

The  cases  above  cited  suggest  that  Stanford  will  one  day  take 
great  pride  in  the  fact  that  these  men  were  enabled  to  secure 
their  training  within  her  walls  in  spite  of  deficiencies  in  secondary 
preparation. 

Assuming,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  a  case  has  been 
made  out  for  admitting  men  as  special  students  on  the  ground 
of  worth  while  experiences  of  life  and  proof  of  adequate  mental 
capacity,  shall  such  students  be  permitted  to  graduate,  and  if  so 
under  what  conditions? 

Two  western  institutions,  the  Universities  of  Arizona  and 
Nevada,  have  by  faculty  action  expressed  a  willingness  to  grad- 
uate disabled  veterans  of  the  world  war  in  regular  course,  i.  e., 
without  requiring  them  to  make  up  entrance  deficiencies,  pro- 
vided they  are  able  to  maintain  institutional  requirements  as  to 
standards  of  scholarship  and  meet  all  other  requirements  for 
graduation.  Both  institutions  require  satisfactory  psychological 
examination  results  as  a  prerequisite  to  admission.  Reports  from 
both  institutions  indicate  that  the  plan  is  working  satisfactorily. 


ADMITTING  SPECIAL  STUDENTS  111 

Stanford  has  adopted  a  plan  which  does  not  discrnninate  be- 
tween disabled  veterans  and  other  students.  Any  special  student, 
admitted  by  the  committee  on  admissions  and  advanced  stand- 
ing, can  graduate  by  making  the  required  scholarship  rating  in 
not  less  than  225  quarter  hours  of  work.  The  requirement  for 
students  with  full  entrance  is  180  units  for  graduation.  This 
means  that  a  special  student  is  permitted  to  graduate  in  one  extra 
year.  Since  the  institution  is  on  the  quarter  basis  and  three 
quarters  constitute  an  academic  year,  a  special  student  by  attend- 
ing four  quarters  each  calendar  year  can  secure  his  degree  in 
15  quarters,  or  three  and  three- fourths  calendar  years. 

The  advantage  of  giving  the  special  student  the  opportunity 
of  graduating  by  working  an  extra  year  in  the  university  itself 
rather  than  requiring  him  to  complete  secondary  preparation 
before  entering  should  be  obvious.  These  special  students  are 
assumed  to  be  persons  over  21  years  of  age.  They  would  feel 
out  of  place  in  a  high  school  and  most  of  them  would  be  unable 
to  adapt  themselves  to  conditions  found  in  the  average  high 
school,  but  if  admitted  to  the  university  they  feel  more  at  home, 
and  will  put  forth  every  ounce  of  energy  to  make  good.  This  is 
shown  by  Table  XXIX,  where  13  regular  students  who  made 
A -(-  scores  on  the  Alpha  test  are  compared  with  the  13  special 
students  who  made  scores  of  A  +  on  the  Alpha  Scale.  The  13 
regular  students  whose  scholarship  ratings  are  shown  in  this 
table  are  also  trainees  of  the  Veterans'  Bureau,  having  their  tui- 
tion, book  expenses  and  a  maintenance  allowance  for  living  ex- 
penses, paid  by  the  U.  S.  government.  This  group  of  13  had 
all  completed  four  years  of  high  school  at  the  time  of  entering 
training  at  Stanford,  and  constitute  the  13  having  the  highest 
scores  in  the  intelligence  test,  of  all  the  Veterans'  Bureau  trainees 
having  regular  standing.  Each  group  in  the  table  is  arranged  in 
rank  order  beginning  at  the  lowest.  The  range  of  scores  for  the 
regular  group  is  from  170  to  186,  and  for  the  special  group  from 
155  to  183,  on  the  Alpha  Scale. 

It  is  unsafe,  of  course,  to  give  undue  weight  to  data  covering 
so  few  cases,  but  it  is  at  least  rather  significant  that  the  13  spe- 


112 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


cial  students  making  the  highest  scores  in  intelligence  examina- 
tions should  have  made  a  scholarship  rating  of  1.93,  while  the 
13  regular  students  making  the  highest  scores  on  the  same  scale 
made  a  scholarship  rating  of  1.78,  or  15  points  lower;  also  that 
the  average  for  all  specials  (1.45)  is  7  points  higher  than  the 
average  for  all  the  regular  trainees  of  the  U.  S.  Veterans'  Bureau. 

TABLE  XXIX.    COMPARING  13  A-|-  SPECIAI,  VETERANS'  BUREAU 

TRAINEES  WITH  THE   13   REGULAR  V.  B.  TRAINEES  WHO 

MADE  THE  HIGHEST  SCORES  IN  THE  AEPHA  TEST,  AS 

TO  SCHOEARSHIP  RATINGS  IN  UNIVERSITY  WORK 


13  Alpha  A+  Specials 

13  A+  Regulars  (Highest) 

Case 
No. 

Hours 
at- 
tempted 

Honor 
points 

Scholar- 
ship 
rating 

Case 
No. 

Hours 
at- 
tempted 

Honor 
points 

Scholar- 
ship 
rating 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

29 
8 
41 
10 
69 
16 
33 
36 
23 
17 
63 
58 
39 

60 

17 

71 

10 

155 

40 

63 

67 

39 

34 

111 

104 

83 

2.07 
2.13 
1.74 
1.00 
2.22 
2.50 
1.90 
1.86 
1.70 
2.00 
1.76 
1.80 
2.13 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

158 

105 

142 

156 

95 

64 

91 

106 

93 

79 

82 

40 

81 

228 
112 
254 
233 
124 

73 
188 
318 
172 
208 
179 

22 
193 

1.44 
1.06 
1.79 
1.56 
1.30 
1.14 
2.06 
3.00 
1.85 
2.63 
2  19 
0.55 
2.38 

Totals 

442 

854 

Ave.  1.93 

1,292 

2,304 

Ave.  1.78 

Ransje  of  Alpha  scores  of  special  group 
from  155  to  183.     Median,  166. 

Average  scholarship  rating  of  all  spe- 
cials, not  counting  the  3  C-f-  cases,  who 
were  "may-attends,"  is  1.45. 

Range   of   Alpha   scores   of   regular 
group  from    170  to  186.  Median,  174. 

Average  scholarship  rating  of  all  reg- 
ular Veterans'  Bureau  trainees,  cover- 
ing six  quarters,  is  1.38. 

The  presumption  is  at  least  strong  that  given  superior  intelli- 
gence, maturity  and  a  well  defined  life  purpose  a  man  can  suc- 
cessfully carry  university  work,  even  though  he  may  lack  the 
customary  four  years  of  preparatory  work. 

There  are  educators  who  seem  to  be  concerned  lest  mental 
tests  become  the  excuse  for  a  new  doctrine  of  infant  damnation.^ 
They  hold  that  it  is  unsafe  to  admit,  even  if  probably  true,  that 


*  Bagley,  F.  C.    "Educational  Determinism;    or  Democracy  and  the  I.Q." 
School  and  Society,  15:373-84,  April  g-  1922.- 


ADMITTING  SPECIAL  STUDENTS  113 

some  of  us  are  intellectually  pint  cups  and  others  gallon  meas- 
ures. It  is  just  possible  that  their  alarm  is  premature.  It  is  a 
poor  rule  that  will  not  work  both  ways.  Perhaps  too  much  em- 
phasis has  been  put  upon  the  revelations  that  tests  have  been 
made  of  mental  deficiencies,  often  on  the  basis  of  a  single  group 
test.  Sweeping  generalizations,  based  on  unreliable  or  insuffi- 
cient data,  to  the  effect  that  47  percent  of  the  white  men  taken 
in  the  draft  were  of  moron  grade  of  intelligence,^  tend  to  discredit 
the  whole  testing  program.  But  such  errors  are  merely  the  by- 
products of  a  great  forward  movement  in  education.  Mental 
tests  are  here  to  stay,  and  on  all  sides  are  indications  that  the 
positive  uses  to  which  such  tests  may  be  put  are  being  stressed. 
One  of  the  most  hopeful  signs  pointing  toward  the  positive, 
as  opposed  to  the  negative  use  of  mental  tests,  is  the  attitude  of 
colleges  and  universities  in  the  matter  of  admitting  special  stu- 
dents who  have  made  high  scores  in  intelligence  tests,  after  the 
manner  above  described.  Too  many  mental  diamonds,  which 
might  otherwise  be  discovered  and  polished,  now  remain  in  the 
rough  on  account  of  the  formal,  inelastic  entrance  requirements 
of  our  colleges  and  universities.  Psychological  tests  will  serve 
the  cause  of  democracy  if  they  help  to  open  the  doors  of  our 
higher  institutions  to  men  and  women  of  marked  ability  who 
would  otherwise  be  barred  on  account  of  entrance  deficiencies. 

Summary  and  Conclusions 

1.  The  practically  universal  requirement  of  four  years  of 
high  school  for  college  entrance,  coupled  with  pressure  for  ad- 
mission, tends  more  and  more  to  exclude  from  higher  educa- 
tional opportunities,  men  and  women  who,  although  capable  and 
mature,  lack  entrance  requirements.  The  species  special  student 
is  in  danger  of  becoming  extinct. 

2.  The  world  war  caused  many  institutions  to  open  their 
doors  to   special   students   who  had   been   disabled   in  military 


=*  Cannon,  Cornelia  James.     "Democracy  in  Question:     I.    American  Mis- 
givings."   Atlantic  Monthly,  February,  1922,  pp.  145  IT. 


114  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

service,  on  the  basis  of  mental  ability,  maturity,  and  vocational 
experience, 

3.  Records  of  41  such  special  Veterans'  Bureau  trainees  at 
Stanford  indicate  that  their  success  in  university  v^ork  has  been 
in  direct  ratio  of  their  scores  on  the  Army  Alpha  intelligence 
scale.  Also  that  the  highest  13  mentally  of  the  specials  made  an 
average  scholarship  rating  15  points  higher  than  the  highest  13 
of  the  regular  Veterans'  Bureau  trainees.  All  specials  averaged 
higher  in  scholarship  than  all  regulars. 

4.  In  the  light  of  such  results  it  should  become  the  prac- 
tice of  colleges  and  universities  to  reserve  a  definite  propor- 
tion of  registrations  for  men  and  v^omen  of  maturity,  proved 
mentality,  and  definite  employment  objective,  regardless  of  en- 
trance deficiencies.  The  case  of  the  man.  No.  29,  in  Table 
XXVIII,  who  was  admitted  with  fifth-grade  education  and  made 
better  than  a  "B"  average  in  two  quarters  of  work  will  be- 
come classic  as  an  illustration  of  what  special  students  of  this 
type  are  capable  of  doing. 

5.  Not  only  should  special  students  be  admitted  on  passing 
satisfactory  mental  examinations,  but  they  should  be  allowed  to 
graduate  on  a  minimum  of  one  extra  year  of  university  work, 
without  being  compelled  to  make  up  traditional  entrance  re- 
quirements. 


APPENDIX 

I.    The  Kohs-Proctor  Mental  Age  Norms  for  the  Army 

Alpha  Scale 

During  the  year  1917-18  the  Army  Alpha  Scale  was  given 
to  several  thousand  California  school  children.  The  children 
tested  were  drawn  from  all  types  of  communities  and  represented 
every  variety  of  social  status.  The  high-school  pupils,  whose 
scores,  school  marks,  etc.,  have  been  discussed  in  the  preceding 
chapters  were  among  this  number. 

In  dealing  with  adults,  an  absolute  point  scale  with  the  total 
scores  grouped  into  five  or  seven  sections  will  give  reasonably 
accurate  impressions  as  to  mental  level.  But  in  the  case  of  chil- 
dren, most  of  whom  are  below  sixteen  years  of  age,  it  is  desir- 
able to  use  the  intelligence  quotients,  or  ratio  between  mental  age 
and  chronological  age.  In  order  to  assign  I.Q.'s  to  the  public 
school  pupils  who  had  been  examined  with  the  Army  Alpha  it 
was  necessary  to  discover  mental  age  norms  corresponding  to 
given  scores  earned  on  the  Alpha  Scale. 

The  writer  collaborated  with  Dr.  Samuel  Kohs  in  working 
out  norms  that  could  be  employed  tentatively  in  computing  cor- 
relations between  school  work,  teachers*  estimates  of  ability,  and 
intelligence  quotients. 

The  first  step  was  to  find  the  curve  of  distribution  of  scores 
in  the  Alpha  Test  by  chronological  age  groups.  The  groups  cov- 
ered six  months  of  chronological  age,  i.e.,  from  9  years,  no 
months  to  9  years,  5  months  in  one  group,  and  from  9  years, 
6  months  to  9  years,  1 1  months  in  another  group,  etc.  A  curve 
for  the  median  scores  made  by  these  chronological  age  groups 
was  plotted. 

It  was  found  that  about  seven  hundred  of  the  children  who 
had  taken  the  Alpha  Scale  had  at  one  time  or  another  been  given 
the  Stanford-Binet  individual  test.  The  Alpha  scores  made  by 
these  children  were  distributed  by  mental  age  groups  and  a  curve 
plotted  of  the  median  scores  by  six-months  mental  age  groups. 

115 


116  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

The  two  curves  were  found  to  correspond  quite  closely.  There 
was  a  variation  of  from  twelve  to  twenty  points  on  the  absolute 
scale  to  cover  a  mental  age  or  chronological  age  year.  For  the 
years  where  there  were  at  least  100  cases  in  each  six-months 
chronological  age  group  the  number  of  points  on  the  scale  neces- 
sary to  cover  a  mental  age  year  varied  only  from  13  to  17. 

It  was  found  that  by  allowing  15  points  on  the  Alpha  Scale 
for  each  mental  age  year,  and  starting  with  "0"  score  on  Alpha 
as  equivalent  to  a  mental  age  of  9  years  0  months,  a  correlation 
of  over  0.90  between  Stanford-Binet  I.Q.'s  and  Alpha  I.Q.'s 
was  obtained. 

Table  XXX  gives  the  corresponding  mental  age  norms  ac- 
cording to  the  Kohs-Proctor  results  and  the  results  obtained  by 
the  Division  of  Psychology,  Surgeon  General's  Office  of  the 
Army.  Figure  6  is  a  graphic  representation  of  the  two  sets 
of  norms. 

The  Army  psychology  norms  were  worked  out  on  the  basis 
of  Stanford-Binet  and  performance  tests  given  to  army  recruits 
who  had  also  taken  the  Alpha  Scale.  Because  the  highest  mental 
age  attainable  on  the  Stanford-Binet  is  19  years,  6  months,  the 
curve  for  these  norms  begins  to  be  more  and  more  depressed  as 
mental  age  19-6  is  approximated.  Up  to  age  18-0  the  Army 
psychology  mental  ages  approximate  one  year  higher  for  a  given 
score  on  Alpha  than  the  Kohs-Proctor  mental  ages.  The  curves 
cross  at  age  18-0  and  thereafter  the  Kohs-Proctor  norms  show 
a  higher  mental  age  for  a  given  Alpha  score  than  do  the  Army 
psychology  norms. 

In  Figure  7  the  Kohs-Proctor  norms  conform  to  a  straight 
line,  because  when  it  was  found  that  15  points  on  the  Alpha 
Scale  corresponded  most  nearly  to  a  mental  age  year  (the  "cut 
and  try"  method  of  arriving  at  this  approximation  being  em- 
ployed) the  "zero"  point,  or  point  below  which  the  median  score 
of  the  children  was  "zero"  was  taken  as  the  starting  point.  This 
was  found  to  be  9  years,  0  months.  From  this  point  ascending 
twelve  points  on  the  perpendicular  for  every  fifteen  points  on 
the  horizontal  axis,  the  line  was  drawn. 


MENTAL  AGE  NOEMS 


117 


These  norms  have  been  applied  to  the  Alpha  scores  of  over 
2,000  high-school  pupils  and  to  many  grade  children.  About 
40  percent  of  these  pupils  have  been  given  the  Stanford-Binet ; 


TABLE  XXX.      MENTAL-AGE  EQUIVALENTS  OF  ALPHA  SCORES,  AC- 
CORDING TO  KOHS-PROCTOR  AND  ARMY  PSYCHOLOGY  NORMS 


Mental  Ages 

According  to 

Army 
Ratings 

Alpha 

Scores 

Kohs-Proctor 
Norms 

Army  Psychology 
Norms 

D- 

0 

9—0 

9—0 

5 

9—4 

9—^ 

10 

9—8 

10—0 

D 

15 

10—0 

10—6 

20 

10—4 

11—0 

C- 

25 

10—8 

11—6 

30 

11—0 

12—0 

35 

11—4 

12—3 

40 

11—8 

12—6 

C 

45 

12—0 

13—0 

50 

12—4 

13—3 

55 

12—8 

13—6 

60 

13—0 

14—0 

65 

13—4 

14—3 

70 

13—8 

14—6 

c+ 

75 

14—0 

15—0 

80 

14—4 

15—3 

85 

14—8 

15—6 

90 

15—0 

16—0 

95 

15—4 

16—3 

100 

15—8 

16—6 

B 

105 

16—0 

16—9 

110 

16—4 

17—0 

115 

16—8 

17—2 

120 

17—0 

17—4 

125 

17—4 

17—6 

130 

17—8 

17—9 

A 

135 

18—0 

18—0 

140 

18—4 

18—3 

145 

18—8 

18—6 

150 

19—0 

18—8 

155 

19—4 

18—10 

160 

19—8 

19—0 

165 

20—0 

19—2 

170 

20—4 

19—4 

175 

20—8 

19—6 

180 

21—0 

19—8 

185 

21—4 

20-O 

190 

21—8 

20—4 

195 

22—0 

20—6 

200 

22—4 

20—8 

205 

22—8 

20—10 

210 

23—0 

21—0 

118 


FSYCEOLOGICAL  TESTS  AND  GUIDANCE 


and  the  correlations  obtained  between  Binet  I.Q.'s  and  Alpha 
I.O.'s  range  from  0.80  to  0.92. 


< 

mi 


29     SO       it     e»     n       60     105    lao      tS5    ISO      ISS    180    19S      SiO 


J£6>is-Rroetor  Boras 
Division  of  Psychology  "Konns 


FIGURE  7.      SHOWING  KOHS-PROCTOR  AND  DIVISION  OF  PSYCHOL- 
OGY, SURGEON  general's  OFFICE,  U.  S.  A.,  MENTAL 
AGE  NORMS  FOR  ALPHA  SCALE 


MENTAL  AGE  NOBMS  119 

II.     Mental  Tests  Available  for  the  Examination  of 
High-School  Pupils 

1.  The  Stanford-Binct. — This  is  the  Stanford  Revision  of 
the  Binet-Simon  Scale.  It  makes  possible  measurement  of  men- 
tality up  to  19  years,  6  months,  and  on  that  account  is  better 
adapted  to  the  testing  of  high-school  pupils  than  any  other  revi- 
sion of  the  Binet  Scale  that  has  been  published.  Record  book- 
lets, test-materials,  score  cards,  etc.,  as  well  as  Dr.  Terman's 
book,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  which  should  be  mastered 
by  anyone  who  undertakes  to  give  the  Stanford-Revision,  can  be 
secured  from  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston. 

2.  The  Alpha  Group  Test,  Army  Scale. — This  was  the 
group  test  developed  by  the  Division  of  Psychology,  Surgeon 
General's  Office,  U.  S.  Army  and  employed  in  the  examination  of 
nearly  two  million  men.  It  consists  of  eight  separate  tests  and 
has  a  total  possible  score  of  212  points.  It  can  be  given  to  sev- 
eral hundred  persons  at  once,  requires  about  45  minutes,  and  can 
be  scored  mechanically  by  trained  clerical  workers.  Examiners' 
guides,  test  booklets,  etc.,  can  be  had  in  quantity  from  the 
Bureau  of  Standards  and  Measurements,  State  Normal  School, 
Emporia,  Kansas. 

3.  The  Terman  Group  Test  of  Mental  Ability. — This  test 
has  been  developed  and  standardized  by  Dr.  Lewis  M.  Terman, 
Professor  of  Educational  Psychology,  Stanford  University,  joint 
author  of  the  National  Intelligence  Tests  and  of  the  Army  Tests; 
also  author  of  the  Stanford-Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  Scale 
and  books  on  the  measurement  of  intelligence.  This  is  the  only 
test  yet  published  which  is  especially  adapted  for  pupils  of  high- 
school  grade.  It  may  also  be  used  successfully  in  grades  six, 
seven,  and  eight,  and  in  the  first  year  in  college.  The  test  is 
issued  in  two  separate  forms.  Form  A  and  Form  B,  each  of 
which  contains  185  problems  or  questions.  Manual  of  Directions 
gives  full  information  for  giving  and  scoring  the  test.  Sold  in 
packages  of  25,  including  Manual  of  Directions  and  Scoring  Key, 
by  the  World  Book  Company,  Yonkers-on-Hudson,  New  York. 

4.  The  Otis  Advanced  Group  Intelligence  Scale. — The  Otis 


120  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

tests  were  among  the  first  comprehensive  group  tests  to  be  pub- 
lished before  the  Army  Alpha  Tests  were  released  for  general 
use.  Mr.  Otis  had  done  more  than  almost  any  other  psychologist 
in  the  development  of  group  tests  at  the  time  of  the  organization 
of  the  Division  of  Psychology,  U.  S.  Army.  Many  of  the  tests 
which  he  had  already  perfected  were  adopted  as  part  of  the  Army 
group  examinations  a  and  b  and  Alpha.  The  Otis  tests  consist 
of  ten  well-selected  tests  arranged  in  booklet  form,  and  published, 
with  Manual  of  Directions,  instructions  for  scoring,  etc.,  by  the 
World  Book  Company,  Yonkers-on-Hudson,  New  York.  These 
tests  are  also  put  up  in  packages  of  25. 

5.  Thorndike's  College  Entrance  Test. — The  original  tests 
of  the  series  of  college  entrance  tests  now  being  developed  by 
Dr.  Thorndike  consisted  of  two  forms,  Form  A  and  Form  Al. 
Form  A  was  made  up  of  a  series  of  13  tests,  the  first  ten  of  which 
were  very  similar  to  the  10  tests  of  the  first  Army  Scale,  Ex- 
aminations a  and  h,  with  a  "True-False,"  a  "Memory"  for  geo- 
metrical forms,  designs  and  numbers,  and  a  "Logical  Reason- 
ing" test  in  addition.  Form  Al  consists  of  nine  tests,  all  in- 
volving a  knowledge  of  literature,  history,  science,  mathematics, 
etc.,  that  every  high-school  graduate  is  presumed  to  have.  It  is 
Dr.  Thorndike's  purpose  to  develop  new  tests  or  series  of  tests 
often  enough  to  prevent  coaching  on  the  specific  items.  High 
correlations  between  the  intelligence  scores  earned  on  the  Thorn- 
dike  College  Entrance  Tests  and  subsequent  work  in  colleges  and 
universities  have  already  been  found.  These  tests  are  published 
by  the  Bureau  of  Publications,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, New  York,  N,  Y. 

III.    The  Barr  Scale  for  the  Measurement  of  Voca- 
TioNAiv  Status 

A  scale  for  the  measurement  of  vocational  status  was  re- 
cently worked  out  by  Mr.  F.  E.  Barr,  assisted  by  Miss  M.  B. 
Henry  and  Mr.  E.  Buckles,  all  at  that  time,  1917-18,  advanced 
graduate  students  at  Stanford  University.  The  method  followed 
in  working  out  the  scale  was  to  write  on  separate  cards  descrip- 


MENTAL  AGE  NO  EMS  121 

tions  of  122  different  occupations,  covering  the  most  common 
vocations  to  be  found  in  all  lines  of  endeavor.  Thirty  different 
judges  were  asked  to  arrange  the  cards  on  which  these  occupa- 
tions were  described  in  the  order  of  the  degree  of  intelligence 
necessary  to  succeed  in  them.  For  purposes  of  scale  making  oc- 
cupation "hobo"  was  to  be  ranked  "0,"  while  occupation  "in- 
ventive genius"  (Edison  type)  was  to  be  ranked  "100."  Certain 
occupations  were  also  suggested  as  having  the  probable  value  of 
"75,"  "50"  and  "25."  The  judges  were  asked  to  take  these 
key  suggestions  and  arrange  the  whole  list  in  rank  order.  After 
the  judges  had  ranked  the  occupations,  the  scale  was  worked 
out  by  the  use  of  Dr.  Samuel  Kohs'  modification  of  Thorndike's 
"Probable  Error"  method  of  scale  making.  The  scale  is  thus 
expressed  in  Probable  Error  values,  which  enables  one  to  com- 
pare directly  the  amount  of  mental  ability  required  for  success 
in  one  occupation  (in  the  estimate  of  the  judges  consulted)  with 
that  required  in  another  occupation.  For  example :  Occupation 
"hobo"  stands  at  the  "0"  point  of  the  scale,  while  "day  laborer" 
stands  at  point  3.62  P.  E.  That  is  to  say,  the  day  laborer  stands 
3.62  P.  E.  values  higher  on  the  occupational  scale  than  the  hobo. 
"Inventive  genius"  (Edison  type)  stands  at  top  of  scale  and  rep- 
resents P.  E.  value  20.71. 

In  order  to  divide  the  scale  into  ranks  for  purposes  of  com- 
paring say  the  occupation  of  the  father  with  the  occupational 
ambition  of  the  boy  or  girl,  we  divide  the  highest  P.  E.  value  i.e., 
20.71  by  the  number  of  ranks  we  want  to  deal  with,  say  5,  which 
gives  us  4.14.  Starting  then  with  "V"  as  the  lowest  rank,  all 
occupations  falling  within  4.14  P.  E.  values  from  "0"  would  rank 
as  "V".  All  those  falling  between  P.  E.  4.15  and  8.28  would 
rank  as  "IV";  between  P.  E.  8.29  and  12.42,  as  "III";  between 
P.  E.  12.43  and  16.56,  as  "11";  between  P.  E.  16.57  and  20.71, 
as  "I". 

To  show  how  this  scale  classifies  occupations  according  to 
the  ability  necessary  to  succeed  in  them,  a  few  occupations  fall- 
ing in  each  rank  in  a  series  of  five  ranks,  with  their  assigned  P.  E. 
values  will  be  given : 


122 


FSTCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 


Rank  I           Inventive  genius  (Edison  type) P.  E.  20.71 

P.  E.  Val.       Surgeon  (like  Mayo  Brothers) "  19 .  73 

16.57  to         Research  leader  (like  Binet  or  Pasteur) "  19.45 

20.71.             High  national  officials. "  18.33 

Musical  or  literary  genius "  18 .  14 

Great  merchant  or  magnate "  18 .  06 

University  administrator "  17.81 

Pubhsher  (high  class  magazine) "  17.50 

Physician "  16.71 

College  professor,  city  supt "  16 .  64 

Rank  II          Mining  engineer "  16 .  26 

P.  E.  Val.      Lawyer "  15.75 

12.43  to         Industrial  chemist "  15.42 

16.56.             Minister  or  priest "  15.15 

Owner  of  large  farm "  14 .  45 

Train  dispatcher "  13.31 

Small  manufacturer "  13 .  31 

Master  mechanic "  13 .  29 

Druggist "  13.21 

Osteopath "  13.20 

Grade  teacher "  13.08 

Rank  III        Librarian "  12.22 

P.  E.  Val.      Trained  nurse "  12.06 

8.29  to          Stenographer "  11.78 

12 .  42.            Grocer,  small  merchant,  etc "  11.51 

R.  R.  passenger  conductor "  11 .  35 

Photographer "  10.83 

Wood  and  metal  pattern  makers "  10.54 

Undertaker "  10.21 

Salesman  (clerk  in  store) . "  9 .  72 

Carpenter,  skilled  mechanic "  9.37 

Electric  repairman "  8 .  99 

Plumber,  journeyman "  8.75 

Rank  IV        Harness  maker "  8 .  22 

P.  E.  Val.      Plasterer "  8.02 

4.15  to           Policeman "  7.54 

8.28.              Brakeman "  7.30 

Vulcanizer "  7. 02 

Switchman "  6.42 

Deliveryman  and  drayman "  5.87 

Dairy-hand "  5.59 

Bar-tender "  5.27 

Farm-hand "  4.91 

Miner "  4.29 

Rank  V          R.  R.  section-hand "  3. 60 

P.  E.  Val.      Day  laborer "  3.57 

0.0  to  4. 14.  Garbage  collector "  2.11 

Odd  jobs,  transient  worker "  1 .  54 

Hobo "  0.00 


The  above  described  scale  for  the  measurement  of  occupa- 
tional status  is  of  course  only  tentative  and  leaves  much  to  be 
desired  in  the  way  of  scientific  classification  and  evaluation  of 


MENTAL  AGE  NOEMS  123 

qualities  essential  to  success  in  a  given  occupation.  All  that  is 
claimed  for  it  is  that  better  results  will  be  obtained  through  its 
use  in  tlie  ranking  of  occupational  status  than  would  be  possible 
if  only  the  unsupported  judgment  of  any  single  individual  was 
to  be  consulted. 

An  opportunity  to  compare  the  Barr  Scale  with  the  results  of 
the  Army  Mental  Tests  is  afforded  by  the  publication  of  a 
pamphlet  by  the  Surgeon  General's  office  giving  the  mental  scores 
by  occupations  of  36,000  men.^  From  the  tables  in  this  pamphlet 
it  appears  that  the  median  score  of  day  laborers  is  "C — "  or  5 
on  a  scale  of  7;  and  that  37 J/2  percent  of  them  rank  in  class  6 
where  the  Barr  Scale  places  them.  Dr.  Giles  M.  Ruch  worked  out 
the  correlation  (rank  order)  between  the  median  scores  made 
by  the  different  occupations  in  the  Army  tests  and  the  rank  order 
assigned  to  the  same  occupations  in  the  Barr  Scale  and  found 
the  correlation  to  be  "r  equals  0.79  with  a  P.  E.  of  0.058."  This 
result  would  indicate  that  the  Barr  Scale  is  sufficiently  reliable 
to  be  utilized  for  the  purpose  of  comparing  the  occupations  of 
fathers  with  the  vocational  ambitions  of  their  children. 

Final,  Word 

The  writer  has  endeavored  to  set  forth  as  faithfully  as  pos- 
sible the  results  of  the  use  of  mental  tests  in  the  discovery  of 
the  mental  levels  of  high-school  pupils.  Three  different  groups 
have  been  followed:  the  first,  a  group  of  pupils  entering  the 
Palo  Alto  High  School  as  first-year  students,  and  given  the  indi- 
vidual tests,  and  most  of  them  later  the  military  group  tests; 
the  second,  a  group  of  pupils  representing  five  high  schools  and 
all  of  the  pupils  present  in  each  high  school  on  the  day  when 
the  test,  the  military  group  tests,  were  given ;  the  third,  a  group 
of  U.  S.  Veterans'  Bureau  trainees,  admitted  to  Stanford  Uni- 
versity as  special  students  on  the  basis  of  scores  on  group  tests, 
regardless  of  high-school  preparation.  The  sixth-  and  seventh- 
year  follow-up  of  the  first  group  is  treated  in  Chapter  IV;    the 


^Anny  Mental  Tests.     Methods,  Typical  Results  and  Practical  Applica- 
tions.   Washington,  D.  C,  November  22^  1918,  p.  23. 


124  PSYCHOLOGICAL   TESTS  AND   GUIDANCE 

second  group  (fourth-year  follow-up)  is  treated  in  Chapter  VI, 
and  the  third  group  in  Chapter  VII, 

The  long-time  follow-ups  on  the  first  and  second  groups  show 
remarkable  agreement  regarding  the  general  mental  level  of 
those  who  drop  out  before  graduation  from  high  school,  those 
who  graduate  from  high  school  and  those  who  continue  their 
education  in  higher  institutions.  They  agree  also  in  supporting 
the  contention  that  social  status  and  the  cherishing  of  educational 
and  vocational  plans  of  a  definite  nature  are  significant  factors 
in  school  achievement  and  survival.  The  results  of  the  study 
of  the  third  group  indicate  that  intelligence,  plus  a  definite  em- 
ployment objective,  enables  a  mature  student  to  overcome  the 
handicap  of  a  lack  of  high-school  training,  and  to  carry  uni- 
versity work  successfully  and  even  with  distinction. 

Since  these  studies  were  begun,  seven  years  ago,  the  use  of 
mental  tests  in  the  educational  and  vocational  guidance  of  pupils 
in  all  departments  of  the  school  system  has  become  one  of  the 
most  discussed  topics  in  educational  literature.  There  is  every 
indication  that  the  movement  will  continue  to  grow.  It  is  per- 
haps inevitable  that  a  movement  which  has  spread  so  rapidly 
should  be  in  greatest  danger  of  serious  harm  from  its  over- 
zealous  but  under-cautious  advocates — from  those  who  draw  un- 
tenable conclusions  from  inadequate  data,  and  proceed  to  adver- 
tise their  new-found  wisdom  to  a  sensation-hungry  world.  No 
one  should  be  permitted  to  apply  mental  tests  to  public  school 
pupils,  who  has  not  first  familiarized  himself  with  the  tests  to 
be  given,  with  the  procedure  as  outlined  and  standardized  by  the 
author  or  authors  of  the  tests,  and  above  all  with  the  methods 
of  scoring  and  interpreting  the  results.  Results  obtained  should 
be  considered  as  tentative, — not  in  any  sense  absolute,  and  should 
be  kept  strictly  confidential.  In  other  words,  "the  coefficient  of 
common  sense"  of  the  tester  should  be  ascertained  to  be  very 
high  before  he  is  permitted  to  handle  tests  or  predicate  advice 
on  the  results  obtained.  When  at  all  possible,  two  different  tests, 
or  two  batteries  of  the  same  test  scale,  should  be  used. 


MENTAL  AGE  NOEMS  125 

Assuming  that  the  cautions  suggested  above  will  be  observed, 
and  that  only  thoroughly  standardized  tests  will  be  employed, 
it  may  finally  be  said  that:  Applied  by  trained  examiners, 
scored  by  expert  assistants,  tested  against  all  available  criteria 
for  validity,  individual  and  group  mental  tests  are  proving  of 
invaluable  assistance  to  secondary-school  teachers  in  the  task  of 
giving  educational  and  vocational  advice  to  high-school  pupils. 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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